Why F1 changed its mind on 11th team: Cadillac to join grid in 2026

No one involved will ever admit that the departure not just of Andretti personally but also his family name were requirements to get it over the line, and there’s no hard evidence that they were specifically requested by F1 or Liberty.

However it’s obvious that things were much easier once that happened, and that in essence his earlier bullish approach had simply rubbed key people up the wrong way.

Meanwhile in the background an investigation into anti-trust infractions related to the initial rebuff was being undertaken by the US Department of Justice – something that moved the whole saga to a completely different level from the sport’s usual Piranha Club antics. With the entry now confirmed, presumably that now goes away.

To recap, in March 2023 the FIA launched an expression of interest process for potential 11th and 12th entries to start in 2025-2027.

Michael Andretti had been trying for years to find a way into F1. He came close to buying Sauber and also looked elsewhere. With no options available he decided instead to start from scratch, and negotiated a Renault power unit supply.

Told that the package wasn’t strong enough to justify an entry, and to find an OEM partner, he duly came back with GM and its Cadillac brand.

Initially it was going to be just a name on the car and some technical support from GM in Charlotte. However, it quickly ramped up into plans to build a complete PU at with 2028 as the likely starting point.

As the entry process unfolded FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem was keen to see a new manufacturer in the sport, and he took a close interest in the GM deal. An Andretti entry in partnership with Cadillac was duly approved by the FIA in October last year, which was the first step in the process.

F1 blocked initial Andretti bid

Agreement with F1 was the second stage. Given the organisation’s ongoing push in the USA you would have thought that the combination of Andretti and Cadillac would tick all the boxes, and that the FIA technical approval would in effect make that next step a formality.

However on January 31 F1 issued a letter explaining the reasons why it didn’t back an entry.

Among the most contentious points made was that “while the Andretti name carries some recognition for F1 fans, our research indicates that F1 would bring value to the Andretti brand rather than the other way around.”

F1 also poured cold water on the very principle of using a customer engine – despite it being an arrangement that works pretty well for the likes of McLaren – and generally made it clear that it was felt Andretti (and GM when its PU was ready) would struggle to be competitive.

The letter concluded thus: “We would look differently on an application for the entry of a team into the 2028 Championship with a GM power unit, either as a GM works team or as a GM customer team designing all allowable components in-house.

“In this case there would be additional factors to consider in respect of the value that the applicant would bring to the championship, in particular in respect of bringing a prestigious new OEM to the sport as a PU supplier.”

This was a curious conclusion in two ways. Firstly the entry bid made it clear that the plan was indeed to have Cadillac in the team name, and a GM engine by 2028, and that the customer PU seasons were just an interim step while the team found its feet.

And secondly the entry approved by the FIA covered arrival in 2025-’27 – so starting in 2028 would involve a whole different legal process.

Andretti’s refusal to give in

The team’s response to this public rebuff was to keep its collective head down and plough on anyway. It opened a new base at Silverstone, started aero work in the Toyota wind tunnel, and began designing and making sample car parts in order to hone internal processes.

And it pursued an aggressive recruitment drive, ramping up tensions with F1 by head-hunting its own technical chief Pat Symonds as executive engineering consultant.

Then on May 1 team patriarch Mario Andretti was invited to an event in Washington, where possible competition law infractions related to F1’s entry block were highlighted in a speech by congressman John James.

A few days later Mario met with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali and Liberty Media boss Greg Maffei at the Miami GP.

In an NBC TV interview Andretti later revealed he was talking to Domenicali about his visit to Washington and trying to explain that he hadn’t initiated the interest of lawmakers.

“I was asked to go there,” he said. “And just as I was trying to explain that to Stefano, Greg Maffei broke in the conversation and he said, ‘Mario, I want to tell you that I will do everything in my power to see that Michael never enters F1.’

“I could not believe that. That one really floored me. We’re talking about business. I didn’t know it was something so personal. That was really — oh, my goodness. I could not believe it. It was just like a bullet through my heart.”

In retrospect Maffei’s specific reference to “Michael” and not “Andretti” or “your team” speaks volumes about why the entry had been blocked.

Meanwhile the anti-trust concerns were formalised in a letter sent to Domenicali and Maffei by the US Congress, via its Committee on the Judiciary. A Department of Justice investigation then began, with Maffei insisting in August that F1 had done nothing wrong.

As the legal investigation bubbled along in the background there were multiple other levels to the whole saga. As noted Ben Sulayem was heavily invested in making the Andretti entry happen, and as such as it became a battleground between the FIA and Domenicali and Maffei.

In the background, negotiations over the new Concorde Agreement, under which the new team would enter, began to ramp up between F1/Liberty and the 10 incumbents.

The latter were not involved in the entry process, but collectively they had no reason to see an 11th team on the grid potentially reducing their income for ever more. Inevitably they regarded the $20m windfall that each would receive – from the “anti-dilution” fee that any new team would have to pay – as insufficient compensation: the value of an F1 team with a confirmed place on the grid is estimated to be in the region of $1bn (£793m).

Just to confuse matters further the option that Andretti had with Renault for a PU supply should it gain an entry had expired, and it was never going to be renewed by the current management. That became moot anyway when it became apparent that Renault would be pulling the plug on its own 2026 PU, and going instead with a Mercedes customer supply.

That opened up the intriguing possibility of GM either taking over the Renault project, or at least acquiring some of its IP.

Despite the fact that such a deal would have been a source of income and potentially kept the Viry staff engaged in F1 that attempt was blocked by CEO Luca de Meo. After all, helping an 11th team to join the grid would potentially devalue its own Enstone operation.

Michael Andretti steps down

Then in late September came an unexpected development. Michael Andretti took a step back from all Andretti Global operations – not just the nascent F1 project – handing control to his investor and business partner Dan Towriss.

Towriss had been in the background all along via his TWG Global Holdings concern, but now he became front and centre. In essence the last couple of months have seen him become the man in the middle of discussions with F1 and Liberty, with GM playing a key role.

It was becoming ever harder for F1 to ignore the growing headcount and ongoing work at the Silverstone facility, with more and more veterans of other teams joining and adding to the project’s credibility. The DoJ investigation also provided obvious impetus to find a solution that worked for all parties.

And thus agreement was finally reached between F1, GM and TWG Global – Towriss in effect – for a Cadillac F1 team to join the grid.

And while the team name is different and it’s now an official works effort rather than a partnership, the basics are unchanged, with a customer engine in the initial years (now likely to be Ferrari) followed by a works PU – albeit now date stamped as “by the end of the decade” rather than specifically 2028.

The Andretti name was completely absent from Monday’s F1 announcement. However it did appear at the bottom of a parallel GM press release, which contained the same information and quotes from all the relevant voices as the F1 statement – but added that Mario Andretti will be a director of the team.

F1 seemingly didn’t want to include that fact or Mario’s quote in its announcement, despite his valuable status as a legend of the sport.

Maffei meanwhile will leave his Liberty CEO role at the end of this year. There’s a bigger picture, and F1 is just one of his current responsibilities, but nevertheless the timing is intriguing. The guy who was seemingly so clearly opposed to an Andretti entry will no longer be around.

The Cadillac team is not just a branding exercise for GM. Its motor sport division in Charlotte has been contributing to R&D projects on the chassis side from the very start, and hosting simulator work. Once the switch to its own PU is made one could argue that the parent company will actually have more direct road car manufacturer involvement in the overall F1 project than the likes of Audi and Mercedes.

Current works team Alpine in contrast will become a Mercedes customer. Meanwhile having failed in its bid to acquire Renault’s 2026 project GM will do the next best thing – it is already actively interviewing Viry employees who are willing to transfer their lives from suburban Paris to North Carolina.

The reality is that two extra cars and drivers on the grid is ultimately good for F1 itself, fans and the media, if perhaps not for the shareholders and bosses of rival teams.

They may come to realise that the involvement of General Motors and Cadillac will ultimately help to increase the overall size of the pie – even if it will now have to be cut into 11 slices, rather than 10…