The last two years have been a whirlwind of emotions for arguably one of the greatest institutions in motorsport — Andretti. After making a full-blown bid to enter F1 as the 11th team on the grid, Mario Andretti faced abject rejection when the Formula One Management (FOM) denied them access to the grid.
However, now, with a few tweaks to the technical details, Andretti’s General Motors-backed F1 venture is all set to debut in 2026. F1 themselves confirmed the team’s entry to the sport last month as the 11th team, but under the Cadillac guise. Nevertheless, it is a situation that the Andretti camp has accepted.
In an appearance on the Drive to Wynn podcast, the 1978 F1 world champion spoke about how F1 finally reneged on their stance and allowed his team an entry on the grid. “We stayed on the road, we stayed on it and [were] confident that we could meet the requirements. Ultimately I think that’s what made them accept us,” he said.
So is Andretti still part of what’s now called the Cadillac Formula 1 team?
Sort of…
Mario Andretti will be on the board of directors, and team leaders Dan Towriss and Mark Walter are key Andretti team figures. Towriss is CEO of the TWG Global motorsport group that now owns… pic.twitter.com/vtRpibpqna
— The Race (@wearetherace) November 25, 2024
While Andretti pins the success of his F1 bid on “faith”, there was a lot of politics that helped him behind the scenes. The party line used by the FOM was their lack of faith in Andretti Global’s profitability in the sport. In the end, it is widely believed that it was actually Michael Andretti’s direct involvement that was a problem for F1’s commercial rights holders.
As soon as Andretti decided to step down from the position of CEO, the newly rebranded Cadillac F1 outfit was shown the green signal by the FOM. In the days after this announcement, the team has also gone on to strike a very important technical partnership with the most iconic team in the sport.
Christmas came early for Andretti with Cadillac-Ferrari F1 partnership
As things stand, finance Goliath, Dan Towriss’ 1001 Group is heading the Cadillac’s project in F1. Suited up to debut in 2026, the team have struck an engine supply deal with Ferrari which would see the Italian automotive giants supply the latest-spec power units to the American team until 2028.
Speaking about this deal, Andretti Sr. said, “Obviously if you had a choice that was it [Ferrari], and that makes Christmas so much more better for me, so much more brighter.”
The Ferrari engine deal is only a stop-gap arrangement in the plans for the Cadillac entry as General Motors works towards developing their own power units. After 2028, the team is gearing up to become the fifth works outfit in the sport.
