On Friday, General Motors affirmed its ongoing collaboration with GM Defies F1’s Skepticism, Pledges Competitive American Team by 2028 in their pursuit of entering Formula 1, emphasizing their rapid development of the car. GM firmly contradicted Formula 1’s claim that an Andretti Cadillac team would lack competitiveness.
In early 2023, General Motors joined forces with Andretti, proposing to Formula 1 the expansion of the current lineup from 10 to 11 teams, enabling Andretti to introduce a fully American team into the international motorsports series. Initially, GM’s role was to provide engine branding for Andretti.
After the FIA, the governing body of F1, greenlighting the Andretti proposal, GM made an official move to become an engine supplier by 2028.
F1’s refusal of Andretti’s bid last month was based on several grounds, including doubts about the team’s competitiveness, the perceived value of the Andretti name to the series, and the unprecedented challenge of joining the grid within the next couple of years.
F1 has expressed openness to reevaluating Andretti’s proposal once GM finalizes its engine by 2028.
The response from both GM and Andretti to F1’s dismissal of the Andretti Cadillac project’s potential competitiveness has been one of frustration.
When queried about this at the Daytona International Speedway, the director of GM Racing reiterated the company’s confidence in their application’s robustness.
However, Jim Campbell, the director, opted not to comment on whether F1’s statements were taken as an ‘insult’ by GM.
Campbell said, “We feel great about our application. The FIA studied it against other applicants and then gave our application a vote of confidence and approval, so obviously (Formula One Management) made their statement, and we have asked for a follow-up meeting with FOM so we will work through that.
“We do believe between Andretti and Cadillac that we have got the capability of fielding a competitive entry. We are not saying that it is easy.
Still, we do between our two organizations have examples in our history of where we have been successful in other motorsports categories and that is true of Cadillac and Andretti. Our joint teams are continuing to develop our car at pace. So, that is where we are at.”
Campbell also noted that GM can produce an engine for Andretti by the 2026 season. However, since initially, there was no intention to serve as a power unit supplier, they did not apply for this role in line with the onset of the new engine rules set to take effect in two years.
He stated, “When you register to be a power unit, there is a deadline to do that, and for us, it was last June for 2028, if you wanted to develop an engine sooner, then you would have had to register the previous year for that. So, it’s simply a regulation.”
In its statement of denial, F1 asserted that Andretti Cadillac failed to acknowledge an invitation in December for a face-to-face meeting regarding their application.
The Andretti team was unaware of this invitation until F1 disclosed it, discovering later through their IT department that an email dated December 12 had been redirected to their spam folder.
The communication did not originate from F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, and F1 did not follow up when they received no reply from Andretti. F1 explained on Friday that the invitation was issued by a high-ranking official who had engaged in prior email exchanges with the Andretti team.
Following this, Andretti Cadillac has requested a meeting with FOM.
“As I said, we believe in the application we submitted and in that application, we articulated the abilities of both Andretti as a race team and Cadillac as a manufacturing and engineering entity,” said Campbell. “So, we feel confident in the application and are asking for a meeting with FOM.”
