Andretti and Cadillac announce plans to enter Formula 1

2023 F1 season

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Andretti has formally announced it intends to submit an entry to compete in the Formula 1 world championship in collaboration with General Motors brand Cadillac.

The two companies plan to submit an Expression of Interest when the FIA begins the process which was announced by president Mohammed Ben Sulayem last week.

Michael Andretti – former F1 driver, IndyCar champion and son of 1978 F1 champion Mario Andretti – has long sought an opportunity to enter F1. Andretti Global announced the construction of a major new headquarters in Indianapolis last year. Its F1 operation would be based in the US with a “support facility” in the UK.

“We are continuing to grow Andretti Global and its family of racing teams and always have our eyes on what’s next,” said Andretti. “I feel that we are well suited to be a new team for Formula 1 and can bring value to the series and our partners, and excitement for the fans.”

Andretti’s team has previously worked with GM in IndyCar, when it used Chevrolet engines in 2012. “I’m proud to have GM and Cadillac alongside us as we pursue this goal,” Andretti continued. “GM and Andretti share a legacy born out of the love of racing. We now have the opportunity to combine our motorsport passions and dedication to innovation to build a true American F1 bid.”

The FIA is yet to confirm how its process for admitting new teams will be structured. Andretti said “we will continue to follow procedures and steps put forth by the FIA during the evaluation process.

“In the meantime, we continue to optimistically prepare should we be fortunate enough to have Andretti Cadillac formally approved as a Formula 1 contender.”

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Ben Sulayem immediately responded to Andretti’s announcement on social media. “I welcome the news of the Cadillac Andretti partnership and the FIA looks forward to further discussions on the FIA F1 World Championship Expressions of Interest process,” he said.

Feature: What happened to the last 10 new teams to enter Formula 1?
Cadillac has not previously competed in Formula 1. The announcement did not specify whether the carmaker intends to produce its own power unit or brand the operation.

GM president Mark Reuss said the car making giant “is honoured to team with Andretti Global on this historic moment in racing.

“We have a long, rich history in motorsports and engineering innovation, and we are thrilled with the prospect of pairing with Andretti Global to form an American F1 team that will help spur even more global interest in the series and the sport.”

F1 has grown its audience in America in recent years and will hold three rounds in the country this season. “Cadillac and F1 both have growing global appeal,” Reuss continued. “Our brand has a motorsports pedigree that’s more than a century in the making, and we would be proud to have the opportunity to bring our distinct American innovation and design to F1.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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53 comments on “Andretti and Cadillac announce plans to enter Formula 1”

  1. I don’t buy it until I see them in FP1

    1. On paper it sounds more likely than Haas’ F1 operation and they’ve done well considering their limited resources. If they have General Motors money behind them they should have no problem provided them teams let them join.

      1. Dane,
        Haas have the chassis commissioned by Dallara. They have signed a strategic partnership with Ferrari capitalizing on the rules to get as much they can in terms of non-listed parts. They have their factory in North Carolina and established their European base in the old Manor factory in Banbury. They have signed Steiner as a team principle and both Grosjean and Magnussen as drivers.

        Haas F1 entry looked serious from the day it was announced in 2014.

        1. I’m not saying there weren’t serious, but an establishment IndyCar team with backing from one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world sounds even more serious to my ears.

        2. No, Haas has a chassis manufactured by Dallara. Haas does the design work (they have to).

          1. grat,
            I’m not a native English speaker, far from it. Though the definition of the word commissioned according to Oxford Languages is “produced specially to order” which means that Haas tells Dallara how to manufacturer their chassis.

    2. FP1? It’ll be the Pre-Sprint GOAT-off Of Death by then.

  2. so the Alpine engine deal is dead?
    or is Cadillac just a branding exercise?
    Andretti Cadillac powered by Alpine/Renault, hmm could be worse i guess
    and why Cadillac? as far consumers are concerned, that entire lineup is going electric. Holden makes way way more sense

  3. I will never understand car manufacturers “entering” Formula 1 by sponsoring a team running someone else’s PU.

    That was stupid with Aston Martin in the RBR days (now at least there’s some overlap with the ownership groups of the car manufacturer and the F1 team it sponsors), it is stupid with Alfa-Romeo sponsoring Sauber, and it will be stupid with Cadillac sponsoring a team running Audi, Ferrari, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, or Renault power units.

    1. What’s to understand? It’s been done since the dawn of motor racing. It’s much cheaper to put your name on it than build it yourself. Most people that see the ads have no idea. How many Americans know that an Acura or Infiniti is just a Honda or Nissan everywhere else?

      1. @darryn it’s certainly nothing new to see engines that might have been built by one party, but given the name of another, appearing in F1.

        We have the long-standing arrangement between Renault and Mecachrome – they’ve been technical partners since the late 1970s, and Mecachrome still designs and manufacturers significant chunks of Renault’s engines to this date, to the point where you could argue if the engines should be rebranded as Renault-Mecachrome engines, or even just have Mecachrome’s name on them.

        Of course, in the late 1990s, when Renault officially withdrew from F1 for a period of time, you had those engines being manufactured under several different names (Supertec and Playlife). Speaking of the late 1990s and early 2000s, you also had the “Asiatech” branded Peugeot engines, “European” branded Ford engines, “Petronas” branded Ferrari engines for Sauber and “Acer” branded Ferrari engines for Prost.

        For a number of years in the 1990s and 2000s, Mercedes were commissioning Ilmor to produce engines for them before eventually buying them out and taking them in house. Go back to the 1990s meanwhile, and you can find Subaru rebranding engines from Motori Moderni and Yamaha rebranding engines from Judd for good measure.

    2. No reason GM can’t build a power unit. I’d be happier if they’d entered under the Corvette brand, but still.

      1. Corvette isn’t a brand though. It’s a model in the Chevrolet range

  4. Interesting since I don’t believe gm has ever been involved with F1.

    Not a big haas fan myself so it’s cool to have a second US team to support

    1. Who is the first? Haas may be American owned (much like several English Soccer Clubs) but they are not an American team (like those soccer clubs).

      1. You could say current American led iteration of Mclaren in then? What a dumb take. None of these teams are any nationality by your standards. Haas is most definitely an American team.

      2. By that argument, there are no German or French F1 teams.

    2. Roger Penske and GM were deeply involved with Ilmor Engines back in the 80s and 90s mostly for Indy Car but also F1.
      Mercedes took over the F1 program and won several World Championships in the late 90s with McLaren.
      Not GM and F1 directly, but a connection none the less.
      All it takes is $$$ to buy or build the expertise, and they have almost four years to do it.
      There will be a few changes in that time frame. Going to be fun to watch.

  5. Mark in Florida
    5th January 2023, 16:34

    No chance at all. The dream is over Michael. Pack it in.

    1. Why do you say that? Because Toto doesn’t want to share his profits?

  6. Not sure why the Andretti entry is being met with such skepticism by so many here. They are exceptionally well capitalized, have enormous experience in racing, and now are bringing a new manufacturer along with them. What more could you ask from a new entry

    1. The abject entitlement of demanding a new entry after you didn’t succeed in buying an existing team and trying to run a driver that doesn’t qualify for a super license are not exactly helping with the scepticism.

      1. The Sauber deal fell through because Andretti was going to get a 49% stake and no control; I certainly wouldn’t have taken that deal. I don’t see ‘abject entitlement’, I see an established and successful racing team willing to front the $200 million entry fee, bring a new auto manufacturer in, follow all the rules re entry, and get repeatedly smacked in the face. What I see is arrogance on the part of F1, the FIA, and the current teams.

      2. What does it have to do with entitlement? Plus, he’s not demanding an entry, he’s applying through the formal process made for new teams entering. They will only use a driver with enough SL points, they’re the rules. He’s just trying to start a F1 team. What’s the big deal? He has lots of racing team management experience, now has a credible backer, what is wrong with that? More teams, more cars, more action. How can you not want that?

        1. Plus, he’s not demanding an entry, he’s applying through the formal process

          There is no formal process. (The FIA president has asked his team to look into implementing one.)

          Andretti has been demanding a new entry ever since his latest attempt to purchase Sauber fell through.

          They will only use a driver with enough SL points, they’re the rules.

          May I direct your attention at the numerous articles on the topic of Mr Andretti (and later Dr Marko) wanting Mr Herta to race in Formula despite not qualifying for a super license?

          More teams, more cars, more action.

          Please have a look at this recent article from a site called racefans.net, outlining every team entered Formula 1 (save Racing Point, which was curiously omitted) and how they faired:

          https://www.racefans.net/2023/01/03/what-happened-to-the-last-10-new-teams-to-enter-formula-1/

          1. How can you say that this is nothing short of … Perfect.
            Current F1 cars are getting bigger, heavier, more ponderous, BIGer wheels, brakes and all manner of automated systems, fits the Cadillac marketing model perfectly.
            T. Wolff recently explained why Mercedes was out of Formula E and all-in on F1. Seems that they, as a corporation, have gained significantly from involvement in F1.
            A negative is the time-line. Effectively 4 full years before we will see a Cadillac / Andretti / GM F1 car turn a wheel in anger. How old will Mario be then, will Michael still be interested, Herta should have moved on by then and will F1 still be the major draw it appears to be today.?

          2. lease have a look at this recent article from a site called racefans.net, outlining every team entered Formula 1 (save Racing Point, which was curiously omitted)

            They listed the last 10 and the earliest listed was Simtek joining in 1994. 10 probably seemed like a decent cut-off number, and 1994 is where that list went back to.

            Jordan Racing joined in 1991

          3. @SteveP

            Racing Point joined Formula 1 in August 2018, which in fact makes it Formula 1’s youngest team.

          4. @proesterchen but Racing Point was never actually a new team, was it? Maybe for legal reasons, but it’s still the same team which started as Jordan Grand Prix in 1991, became Midland F1 Racing in 2006, Spyker in 2007 and Force India (later Sahara Force India) in 2008.

            While Racing Point was legally a new entry in 2018, it’s still all the same assets and staff. The same team.

            Surely none of this is news to you and you’re just finding a bone to pick for… reasons?

          5. @justrhysism

            If I bought every piece of clothing that you own, would that make me you? What if I bought all your furniture, too? Your car? Your house? What if I bought just bought everything?

            Racing Point is a separate entity from Force India, the former merely purchased some / most / all of the assets of the latter.

            The original Jordan entry ceased participation in Formula 1 when Force India went into administration.

            Racing Point was granted a magical new entry from the 2018 Belgian GP forward, the same entry Aston Martin is still running on today.

            btw: IIRC we had the exact opposite happen when BAR bought Tyrrell’s entry for the 1999 season. They didn’t use the old assets, but there was never any doubt that the shiny new team was in fact a continuation of the same entry because they ran under the same company number, which is why you can find documents all the way back to the 1964 founding of the Tyrrell Racing Organisation Ltd when you’re looking at the now Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd:

            https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00787446/filing-history?page=12

          6. @proesterchen
            1. Yeah exactly, they’re making a process.
            2. He just wants to join, what’s the problem with joining? It’s not exactly demanding.
            3. Yeah they might want him to race, but if he doesn’t have enough SL points, he won’t.
            4. Doesn’t matter if they folded or didn’t get wins. They were there, raced and were part of it. Still better to have them than not

          7. @frankjaeger

            Still better to have them than not

            The families of Roland Ratzenberger, Maria de Villota and Jules Bianchi might beg to differ.

          8. @proesterchen

            If I bought every piece of clothing that you own, would that make me you? What if I bought all your furniture, too? Your car? Your house? What if I bought just bought everything?

            What a ridiculous analogy; a team is nothing like a single individual. Indeed it’s in the name: team. 🙄

          9. @proesterchen

            Jules slipped off in heavy rain, he was a good talent. I don’t get what you’re trying to say. Judging from other comments, your perspective and attitude is quite concerning. Let’s just leave it there shall we.

          10. @frankjaeger

            That’s just the consequence of you making blanket statements without thinking them through.

            I’ll gladly proclaim that in the cases of Simtek and Manor, you are wrong and most everyone, not just the people who lost their lives and their families and friends, would have been better off if Nicholas Wirth had never stepped foot in an F1 design office.

          11. @justrhysism

            “Teams” don’t hold F1 entries, companies do. And the company that competed in Formula 1 as Jordan, Spyker, Midland, and Force India went into administration in 2018, at which point it ceased competing in Formula 1.

          12. @proesterchen sure, that is the case legally.

            I once worked for a company which went into administration a few years after I left (not due to me leaving, I left because it was poorly run), and someone came in, dissolved the original company, started a new one trading as the same name but with all the same staff and assets.

            Legally a new company with a new director; but for all intents and purposes it’s the same company pimples and all.

            Anyway my point has always been that would be why it was omitted from that list.

            I’m bored of this conversation—you’re welcome to continue but I’ll be ignoring it from now on.

      3. You really love to hear yourself talk don’t you? Know one else does.

    2. @spencer whilst there is a certain poster here with a rather snobbish attitude, perhaps some of the scepticism has come from the failed attempt by Andretti to buy Sauber.

      If, as Andretti implied, the owners of Sauber seem to have become less confident in Andretti’s ability to run the team as the negotiations went on and wanted to change the terms of the deal to reduce Andretti’s influence, it raises the question of what caused that loss in confidence and perhaps raises some questions about whether Michael could deliver on his promises.

      There were also some allegations back in around 2015-2016 by two former business partners (John Lopes and Starke Taylor) about Michael mismanaging some of his companies, even going as far as claiming that Andretti’s IndyCar team was technically insolvent. Lopes and Taylor commenced legal action against Andretti over some of the losses they incurred – although that case was eventually settled out of court, so the full details were never publicly disclosed. Although it has been a few years since that legal case, and even if the SPAC was relatively successful in raising the capital that Andretti had aimed for, there may be some memories of those claims that might have raised some doubts about whether Andretti does have enough financial backing to make his team work for the long term.

      The promise of “bringing a new manufacturer” to the sport is also dampened by the fact that General Motors have confirmed that they will be rebranding an existing engine for the foreseeable future. In that sense, the deal would be closer to that of Alfa Romeo rebranding Ferrari’s engines – it is bringing a new manufacturer into the sport, but it’s in a rather more limited capacity than first suggested.

  7. I really don’t think GM will build a power unit just for F1

  8. Cadillac? I did not see that coming. GM maybe, but Cadillac? What an unusual choice of brand. I’m all for new competitors, and I’m mostly in the ‘more the merrier’ camp. If they were to build their own engines – are they going to sell more Cadillacs? Seems a bold step.

    If Michael is serious, I’m all for having another F1 team. I’m just not entirely sure where Cadillac came from.

    1. I was more thinking of Chrysler which develop indy car engines but not Cadillac. When they apply for a new team entry i think this has a good chance todo well.

    2. Mark in Florida
      6th January 2023, 15:44

      (@bernasaurus The DPI cars are Cadillac badged, well 5 of them are but 2 are Acuras. But they run Corvette v8 engines. Cadillac is heavily involved in promoting the performance part of their cars. Sadly though they have discontinued the Blackwing series. These cars had very high output engines. I guess it’s part of their push to compete against BMW. I’ll be at Sebring 1000 and Sebring 12 hrs so I’ll get to see whatever performance series Cadillac is pushing this year. Oddly it will probably be the new Lyric, the electric car.

  9. Cadillac has been quite successful in GT racing, Daytona/Protoype and LeMans in recent years. That’s whey they’re involved:

    IMSA WEATHERTECH
    SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP
    2017, 2018 and 2021 Champions

    MICHELIN NORTH AMERICAN
    ENDURANCE CUP™
    2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020
    Consecutive Champions

    ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA
    2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020
    Consecutive Champions

    https://www.cadillac.com/world-of-cadillac/racing/imsa-prototype-racing

    1. Considering the recent surge in American interest in F1, in Liberty could be looking toward having another American entry in the grid.

  10. Good for them. Looking forward to it. Took decades of work to make F1 popular enough for American companies to really get behind it, and the posturing from Stefano is just hilarious at this point…

  11. Perpetual cheat and stuck in the past Brawn retires and the sport opens up to legitimate bids for expansion for the first time in decades. How convenient.

  12. Too much money required, too much effort, and I don’t believe GM will have the patience to wait for results.

  13. Don let GM’s Reuss drive the pace car please.

  14. That will put pressure on Colton Herta to win the championship this year. And it could become Romain Grosjean ticket back to Formula 1.

    If this comes to the point Andretti enters Formula 1, it could become a possibility to get Jak Crawford in their program in an event that RBR tends to drop him. Mikey will have a “Plan B”

  15. That’s great, but then there’s the hurdle of the Concorde Agreement and its other two groups of ultra-defensive stakeholders…..

  16. It will be interesting to see if Zak Brown makes the jump.

  17. Will BWT switch teams, again, just so we can have pink Cadillacs?

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