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GM entry edges toward F1 grid with Andretti team changes
Posted by Talbot Payne on November 25, 2024
Las Vegas — Slowly but relentlessly, Andretti-Cadillac is moving closer to securing its position on the Formula One grid.
GM’s commitment to the program, as well as personnel changes at Andretti Global and Liberty Media — which owns Formula One and has resisted the Andretti-Cadillac effort — appear to have removed roadblocks to entry for the American team.
With a restructuring at Andretti Global that pushed Michael Andretti into a smaller role, the chances of his organization landing a Formula One team have substantially increased. At the same time, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei, a fierce opponent of Michael Andretti joining the world’s premier motorsport, is steeping down at the end of the year.
Mercedes driver George Russell, of Britain, drives during a practice session for the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix auto race, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Las Vegas. The chances for General Motors Co. to be approved to enter a team into the series appear to have increased. John Locher, AP
So dramatically have the personnel developments reshaped the landscape that F1 and Formula One Management (the 10 teams that make up the current grid) could have a decision to grant the General Motors Co.-backed entry a spot as the 11th team on the grid in the coming weeks.
“I kind of know what I’m hearing on the grapevine. We’ve not been officially told anything but we partner with GM with our IndyCar team, so I’ve seen them here and they seem to have big smiles on their face,” McLaren CEO Zak Brown, who has been supportive of the American entry, told Sky Sports F1 ahead of Las Vegas qualifying. “So I believe an announcement is probably imminent and it will be exciting to have yet another manufacturer alongside Audi joining our sport.”
Despite the sport’s politics, General Motors has remained steadfast in its commitment to joining Formula One for the 2026 season and has pushed ahead with Andretti Global in development of a hybrid-election drivetrain.
As Cadillac goes all-electric by 2030 and expands its international footprint to Europe, it sees F1 as an opportunity to showcase its technological chops. F1 “power unit” regulations change dramatically in 2028 to a 50-50 hybrid requirement and GM is focused on developing a competitive drivetrain to that standard.
In so doing, it would join an elite group — including Ferrari, Mercedes, Honda, Renault, Audi, McLaren and Red Bull Ford — that make F1 powerplants. Ford Motor Co. is supplying battery components to England-based Red Bull’s powertrain effort, which makes for an enticing crosstown Detroit F1 rivalry.
“We continue to work with the FIA and FOM regarding our expression of interest and are excited about our progress,” GM spokesperson Michael Albano said Friday. “In parallel, development of our team, car and power unit continue. We have no additional news to announce at this time.”
Dan Towriss, who took Andretti’s position at Andretti Global and is now the majority owner of the Andretti organization, is at the Las Vegas Grand Prix this weekend scoping his chances of entering the top motorsports series in the world.
Also ahead of the Vegas GP, Liberty Media confirmed that Maffei is stepping down at the end of the year with chairman John Malone assuming the role of interim CEO. Friction between Maffei and Michael Andretti is well known. In May, NBC News reported that Maffei told Michael’s father, Mario: “I want to tell you that I will do everything in my power to see that Michael never enters Formula 1.”
Formula One racing legend Mario Andretti talks to fans following a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Andretti is demanding answers from Formula One about its decision not to admit Andretti Cadillac to the racing circuit. J. Scott Applewhite, AP
Las Vegas is one of three U.S. F1 Grand Prix event — more than in any other country — as Americans have embraced the sport in the last five years. The F1 Netflix series “Drive to Survive” accelerated fan interest and made the U.S. one of the fastest-growing F1 markets in the world.
The addition of the all-American team of Andretti-Cadillac is seen by many as another generator of fan engagement here. Cadillac’s entry would be a feather in the cap of GM President Mark Reuss, a passionate motorsports proponent who has led successful Cadillac and Chevrolet campaigns in sportscar racing and IndyCar, respectively.
“US audiences are already very familiar with the Andretti name, so what better way to entice viewers to stick around at a time when viewership is threatening to wane in the (US)?” wrote racing business analyst site Blackbook Motorsport in a recent analysis.
But the F1 politics became a quagmire for the U.S. effort in January as Formula One Management’s 10 teams resisted spitting revenues with an 11th entry, and Liberty and Andretti personalities clashed. Andretti turned up the heat by asking for a federal antitrust investigation into F1 and holding a defiant Capitol Hill news conference with members of Congress.
The FBI is also in Vegas this weekend, allegedly, as part of the Department of Justice investigation into why F1 denied the Andretti organization expansion into the series. Of the 10 teams (fielding two cars each for a 20-car grid), only one — the organization owned by California businessman Gene Haas — is U.S.-owned.
The logjam seemed to break in September when Andretti scaled back his role with his namesake organization. Now with Towriss in charge, talks have amplified, even though it is not clear what the name of an Andretti-less F1 team would be. Cadillac is working towards its 2028 powerplant — but the Towriss-led F1 team wants to join the field in 2026 to get its feet wet in the demanding sport ahead of 2028 regulations taking effect. In that case, the team would still brand with GM, but would need an interim-partner engine supplier.
Most of the existing teams have been largely opposed to an 11th team entering F1, citing a dilution in prize money and the massive expenses they’ve already committed to the series. But Andretti, among others, believed the teams’ position was personal in that they simply didn’t like him. He ran 13 races in the 1993 season and his father, Mario, was the 1978 F1 world champion.
The Andretti application had already been approved by the FIA, which is F1’s ruling body, but F1 management is a three-legged stool with FIA, owner Liberty Media and FOM approval all required for new teams. F1 promised in January to revisit the issue once General Motors had an engine ready to compete, and GM has continued to invest in that effort.
Though the existing 10 F1 teams have no actual vote or say in if the grid is expanded, they have publicly warmed to an Andretti-Cadillac effort. The Associated Press asked Mercedes boss Toto Wolff on Thursday why the sudden chance of acceptance in a potential 11th team.
“We have an obligation, a statutory obligation as directors, to present the standpoint that is the best for our company and for our employees, and we’ve done that,” Wolff said. “I think if a team can add to the championship, particularly if GM decides to come in as a team owner, that is a different story.
“And as long as it is creative, that means we’re growing the popularity of the sport, we’re growing the revenue of the sport, then no team will be ever against it. So I’m putting my hope in there.”
Wolff has been eager to hear from Towriss directly on what the plans for the organization are now that Andretti has a smaller role.
“No one from Andretti or Andretti Global or whatever the name will be has ever spoken to me a single sentence in presentation of what the creative part is,” he said. “But they don’t need to because the teams don’t decide. It is the commercial rights holder, with the FIA; we have no say. If I want to be invited to a party and go to the party, I’m sitting down at the table and telling who I am and why I’m really good fun and sitting here and everybody will enjoy my presence.
“That hasn’t happened, but you know, that’s now my personal point of view, not a professional, because there’s nothing we can do, nothing we can say,” Wolff continued. “And I don’t know the people. I’ve obviously spoken to Mario. I didn’t speak to his son. I didn’t speak to any other people that are behind that. I don’t know who they are. So I know GM, GM is great.”
Fred Vasseur, team principal at Ferrari, said he’s not opposed to another team if it adds value to F1.
“The discussion is between FIA, the team, and FOM. It’s not our choice,” he said. “For sure, as Toto said, that if it’s good for the sport, good for the show, good for the business, and adds value on the sporting side, that we are all OK.”
That’s progress from earlier this year, when nearly all team principals rejected an 11th team and FOM rudely dismissed the two icons of American motorsport as “a novice entrant” with little “understanding of the scope of the challenge involved.”
GM pushed back hard on F1’s assessment, saying it “strongly disagreed with its content,” and drivers like ex-F1 ace Oriel Servia weighed in, saying “the arguments that Formula One gave, in my opinion, were pathetic and insulting.”
Andretti-Cadillac refused to give up, and opened an English base (where most F1 teams are located) for Andretti Global in addition to its U.S. headquarters in Indianapolis.
The team has conducted extensive wind-tunnel work using Toyota’s facility in Cologne, Germany, hiring key personnel while making steady progress on building and crash-testing a 2026 chassis.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.