In November 2021, Michael Andretti first approached FIA and the pinnacle of motorsports with an idea no one had succeeded at in five years: Launch an expansion Formula 1 team and put 22 cars on the grid for the first time since 2016.
Having lost out in the 11th hour in a power struggle over a near-deal with the owners of the Sauber Group, Andretti wouldn’t be deterred. He’d tried – and failed – three times to launch a NASCAR program, and since launching what was originally Andretti Green Racing in 2003 in IndyCar, he’d expanded his eponymous racing program into IMSA, Formula E, Supercars, Indy NXT, Extreme E and Super Copa. One dead end wasn’t about to deter him.
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The FIA told Andretti it wanted to get through the end of what had been a wild 2021 season and hoped to get him an answer by early January. Then Abu Dhabi happened, followed five days later by the election of a new FIA president. Finding themselves in mid-February without so much as a follow-up, he and his famous father Mario decided to go rogue.
What followed was the tweet heard round the motorsports world, and Andretti Global and decisionmakers at the FIA and Formula 1 would go for the next several months trading barbs over financial solvency, the impact and weight of the Andretti name and the need and value of a truly American team in a sport yearning to find a stronger foothold in this market.
Though Thursday’s news – a partnership with General Motors for an ‘expression of interest’ into F1’s potential expansion through GM’s Cadillac brand – still leaves several questions regarding Andretti’s latest charge towards motorsports’ mountaintop, he and GM President Mark Reuss made clear they believe they’ ve crafted an unimpeachable prospect.
“To have an American manufacturer behind an American team with an American driver, I think is going to be the biggest story of the year,” Andretti told reporters Thursday. “One of the big things had been, ‘What does Andretti bring to the party?’ Well, we bring one of the biggest manufacturers in the world now in GM and Cadillac.
“That was the one box we didn’t have checked that we do have now. We’ll bring a tremendous amount of support now for F1, and it’s hard for anyone to argue with that now.”
An ‘All American effort’
Andretti’s deep into the hiring process to staff his eponymous F1 venture.
“We have quite a few people already working for us,” he said. “We’ve hired the main engineers. We have our own technical director already hired that we’ll announce down the road as well.”
As he promised in May, too – though with a four-month delay – Andretti Global broke ground last month on a 575,000 square-foot, $200 million race shop in Fishers that Mario said will be “bigger than Ferrari’s.” The team’s new HQ, after it moves out of its current Zionsville Road location (that it’s already found a buyer for) in early 2025, will also be accentuated with a satellite shop in Europe. “We will be running more than just F1 in Europe,” he said, likely referring to his current Formula E team as well as a potential push towards a Le Mans entry.
And with Colton Herta tied down with a historic contract extension in IndyCar through 2027, the 22-year-old is a frontrunner for an eventual ride – he should finish at least 3rd in the 2023 IndyCar championship to quiet controversy as to whether he’s deserving of or can qualify for an F1 Super License.
“We want to make this an all-American effort,” Andretti said. “And we’ll make sure we have an American driver in the seat.”
But who, exactly, is calling the shots, when such a venture might see the grid, and what it might be powered by remains to be seen.
War of words between FIA, FOM and Andretti continues
Michael and Mario Andretti have been fairly mum about their largest motorsport dream in recent months after the media storm of February and May of last year. In the first half of this year, you would’ve lost count at the times F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner and Mercedes principal Totto Wolff referenced the “noise” around Andretti and that Mario and his son were merely the loudest of a deep group of suitors for an 11th seat at the F1 table.
At Andretti Global’s groundbreaking Dec. 7, the younger Andretti would only tell IndyStar that he and financial supporter Dan Towriss – the CEO of Group1001 (the parent company of Gainbridge, Andretti’s strongest IndyCar sponsor) – were “confident” and “getting close” but hadn’t “gotten the okay yet.”
“There’s a lot of conversations going on, and we’re not trying to get out in front of anything or use the media as a tool to influence anything,” Towriss told IndyStar at the time. “They have an expectation on approach and decorum that people should take in dealing with them, and we respect that.”
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But is that mutual respect?
During Andretti and Reuss’s media call Thursday morning, Formula One Management (FOM, whose parent company is Liberty Media) released a statement in response to Andretti and GM’s news – seemingly in hopes to temper the pair’s expectations a retake control of the narrative.
The news cycle began Monday when FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulyamen tweeted that he had asked his FIA team “to look at launching an ‘Expressions of Interest’ process for prospective new teams for the FIA F1 World Championship.” Such a process must be formally opened before a team like Andretti could join the grid and was the same process that Haas F1 went through more than five years ago before its debut in 2016. Once enacted, it would be the formal process it initially seemed as if Andretti had gone through back in February of last year when Mario tweeted Feb. 18 that “Michael has applied to the FIA to field a new F1 team starting in 2024. He is awaiting the FIA’s determination.”
On its own Monday, Ben Sulayem’s seemed to have come out of left field, but with Thursday’s flood of news, statements and releases, the picture behind the scenes between the FIA, FOM and Andretti began to take shape.
The FIA president’s tweet as the news broke read of solid support: “I welcome the news of the Cadillac and (Andretti) partnership, and the FIA looks forward to further discussions on the FIA F1 World Championship ‘Expressions of Interest’ process.”
In stark contrast, FOM had already circulated a statement to select media on Andretti and Reuss’ call that furthered its position that an 11th team continued to be an if rather than a when with a veiled but indirect reference to Andretti and GM’s pursuits.
“There is great interest in the F1 project at this time, with a number of conversations continuing that are not as visible as others,” FOM said in a statement. “We all want to ensure the championship remains credible and stable, and any new entrant request will be assessed on criteria to meet those objectives bye the relevant stakeholders.
“Any new entrant request requires the agreement of both F1 and the FIA.”
In a similarly curt response, Andretti said Thursday, “In the end, it’s an FIA series, and the president has definitely showed he’d really like an 11th team on the grid. He’s a racer, and he understands the importance of that for the series itself. We feel very confident that, once the ‘expression of interest’ goes out, especially with our great partnership with Cadillac, that we have a very, very good shot at checking every box and being able to be on the grid soon.”
Questions still loom about Andretti Global’s engine plan
As to precisely when ‘very, very soon’ may be will ultimately come down to the FIA. Andretti had previously stated he was targeting 2024 – as recently as December – but walked that back Thursday. “We are going to be on the track as soon as it makes sense to be on-track,” he said.
Under current regulations, a new engine manufacturer – as GM would be – wouldn’t be able to power a team with its own engine until 2026 when the new engine regulations come into play. And in order to be part of discussions around those shaping regulations, GM would’ve had to submit his interest late last fall. Though it’s believed the company could still launch an engine program, it would have no say about its rules, which typically acts as a deterrent for interested parties.
It’s why Audi formally announced plans early in 2022 to launch a 2026 engine program well before even confirming its deal to buy into the Sauber Group (and take a stake it what’s currently Alfa Romeo F1).
When asked about power unit plans Thursday, Andretti and Reuss danced around the question, admitting they have “a signed agreement” with a current manufacturer that would kickstart the program, though whether that would only be to get them to 2026 is unclear. Reuss confirmed that GM would support aero, chassis and combustion development out of its Warren, Mich. and Charlotte, NC, shops.
Reuss also declined to denounce the possibility that GM might use its current partnership with Honda via electric vehicle road car technology to launch an F1 power unit program. Neither side addressed the well-known engine deal Andretti had inked with Alpine for its initial independent F1 push at the start of 2022.
Still, Andretti said he’s a “1,000% believer” that this latest iteration of his F1 dreams, still with a couple questions left publicly unanswered, has enough to finally get to the finish line.
“We feel like we’re definitely ahead of our competition to get there,” he said. “I feel very, very confident we’ll be on the grid soon.”
