A Deep Dive Into An All-American Team In Formula One With Andretti Global And Cadillac

The late Dan Gurney and Phil Hill would be proud as Andretti Global, and Cadillac are joining forces in an attempt to bring an All-American Team to the Formula One World Championship in 2026.

Mario Andretti is the last driver from the United States to win the Formula One World Championship when he drove the Lotus Powered by Ford to the title in 1978. Prior to that, Phil Hill was the only driver from the United States to win the Formula One World Championship in 1961. Hill drove for Ferrari.

Gurney never won the Formula One World Championship but was an icon in F1 racing. He won four F1 grands prix but drove the American-made Eagle in the Formula One World Championship for his Santa Ana, California-based All American Racers team.

He remains the only American Formula One driver to win in the car that he built.

Although Haas F1 is currently the only United States team in Formula One, team owner Michael Andretti’s latest move triples the pride in the Red, White, and Blue.

The American driver from Nazareth, Pennsylvania who now lives in Indianapolis announced on January 5 a partnership with General MotorsGM
and the Cadillac brand in its bid to join the Formula One World Championship. That team would feature a driver from the United States, current NTT IndyCar Series star Colton Herta of Santa Clarita, California.

By joining forces with the largest automotive manufacturer in the United States with General Motors featuring the iconic luxury brand of Cadillac, former IndyCar and F1 driver Michael Andretti is hoping it’s enough to power Andretti Global to the finish line in its pursuit of a prized spot in the Formula One paddock.

“One of the things is to have an American manufacturer behind an American team with an American driver is going to be the biggest story of the year,” Andretti said Thursday. “So, it just happened naturally. I don’t think anything’s changed that much. We’re still getting people together to build the team. The great thing is GM has great people and resources ready to help us get up and running even quicker.

“We’re in a really good position.”

From a sports business angle, it’s an historic announcement marking General Motors’ first foray into the pinnacle of international motorsports, the Formula One World Championship.

For 77 years General Motors was the largest automotive manufacturer in the world before Toyota took that position in 2008. This year, however, GM passed Toyota for the No. 1 position among US automakers.

Andretti Global has already earned the support of FIA President Mohammed Bin Sulayem, who last week encouraged Formula One to immediately pursue adding an 11^th team to the F1.

Formula One owners who are adamantly opposed to sharing the wealth that is currently divided by 10 teams with two entries each is led by Mercedes-AMG F1 principal Toto Wolff, a billionaire from Austria.

Formula One issued a release shortly after news broke of the Andretti Global partnership with Cadillac on Thursday, stating there are other teams under consideration for an 11^th team.

Any decision on an expanded field must be made by both the FIA and Formula One – one entity cannot overrule the other.

“There is great interest in the F1 project at this time with a number of conversations continuing that are not as visible as others,” F1 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 by all the relevant stakeholders. Any new entrant request requires the agreement of both F1 and the FIA.”

The 60-year-old Andretti remains undeterred and believes the combination of Andretti Global and Cadillac is an offer that Formula One can’t refuse.

“Absolutely,” Andretti said confidently. “One of big things was what does Andretti bring to the party? Well, we’re bringing one of the biggest manufacturers in the world with General Motors and Cadillac. That was the one box we didn’t have checked that we do have checked now. We’ll be bringing a tremendous amount of support to Formula One. It’s hard for anyone to argue with now.

“One thousand percent I believe (we’ve got a shot),” Andretti continued. “We have checked every box. We’re ahead of our competition to get there. I feel very, very confident that we’ll be on the grid soon.”

When asked who his competitors for that prized F1 entry, Andretti responded, “They don’t share (the competition) with us.”

According to General Motors President Mark Reuss, Andretti Global and GM have been involved in discussion for a Formula One team for the past “four or five months.”

The two major players did a fantastic job of keeping their discussion private before making the big announcement on Thursday.

“Today is the first step in what we hope will be the historic entry of General Motors into F1,” Reuss said. “It has never happened in our history. It is very, very exciting for us to be with Andretti. Given the opportunity, GM and Cadillac will compete with the very best at the very highest levels with passion and integrity that will continue to elevate the sport for FIA and race fans around the world.

“Thank you, Michael for your support. We have won championships with Michael in IndyCar. Can’t wait to work together again.”

To Reuss and General Motors, the time was right to justify the major expenditure needed to pursue the most expensive form of racing in the world. It has been reported that it takes $200 million to field a competitive F1 entry.

Because of Formula One’s booming surge in popularity in the “Drive to Survive” world, as the NetflixNFLX
docuseries created new fans all over the globe, General Motors can justify the investment, rounding out its impressive portfolio of motorsports series that it competes in.

“At some point GM, we would have loved to have gotten into Formula One,” Reuss explained. “For various reasons, it was pretty tough to do that. Whether the leadership or the amount of money at that time or where the company was and where the economy was were different.

“This opportunity and Michael were just really, really important to us. We weren’t searching necessarily to do it, but Michael kicked it off. I was personally really over the moon, and it just evolved in a really positive way.”

Details on how the team will operate were revealed Thursday. The main headquarters will be at Andretti Global’s massive new racing facility currently under construction in Fishers, Indiana – a wealthy suburb northeast of Indianapolis. According to Andretti, it’s going to be one of the most advanced racing facilities in the world.

There will also be a secondary satellite facility based in Europe.

Andretti indicated that Herta is the “leader of the pack”, and the team will have an American driver in the seat.

Andretti also said key personnel have already been hired including main engineers and a technical director, who will be announced soon.

Reuss said General Motors will support technically the aero/chassis/combustion elements out of its technical center in Warren, Michigan and its Racing Tech Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“I couldn’t be more excited to write this new chapter of racing history together,” Reuss said. “Like Andretti Global, General Motors has long history in motorsports and a deep passion to race. Our racing pedigree has been forged at some of the greatest tracks and in some of the greatest races around the world. Our hope is to add F1 to competition portfolio. If accepted, this all-American team would run under the Cadillac racing marque.

“Cadillac’s global appeal is growing. Cadillac is one of the world’s fastest growing luxury brands right now. In just a few weeks, Cadillac will begin the journey back to Le Mans by running the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

“By racing in Imsa, WEC and F1, Cadillac will have the opportunity to showcase its innovation and technology while going up against the best international luxury brands.”

Transfer technology is a key element to General Motors involvement in the highly technical world of Formula One as the automotive industry is moving rapidly in a new direction.

“At GM, we have always taken a lot of pride in transferring the cutting-edge technology by our race teams to our production vehicles and taking it from the track to the street,” Reuss said. “At Cadillac, that means the V-Series. Cadillac’s passion for performance is embodied in the V-Series portfolio, which puts race track technology and performance into the hands for our customers.

“But our commitment to this program goes beyond the Cadillac livery. GM’s vast engineering resources will bring proven success and valuable contributions to this partnership. This includes all the talent and capabilities of GM Racing staff and facilities of GM Racing at the Warren Tech Center and North Carolina as well as the expertise of our engineers and designers in the areas like combustion, battery technology, turbocharging, vehicle integration and the list goes on and on.”

“Today is the first step in what we hope will be the historic entry of General Motors into F1. It has never happened in our history. It is very, very exciting for us to be with Andretti. Given the opportunity, GM and Cadillac will compete with the very best at the very highest levels with passion and integrity that will continue to elevate the sport for FIA and race fans around the world.

“Thank you, Michael for your support. We have won championships with Michael in IndyCar. Can’t wait to work together again.”

Andretti believes the FIA President is a key ally in helping him get a highly coveted Formula One team. Andretti had an agreement to purchase the Sauber F1 team in 2021 for $600 million, but that deal was never completed when Sauber refused to give up authoritative control of the operation.

“It’s been well documented that Andretti Global has a desire to enter the Formula One World Championship,” Andretti said. “I would like to thank the FIA and President Mohammad for their recent interest and exploring and expressing interest in the process. Mohammad is a real racer with true passion for the sport. I appreciate his transparency and willingness to be open to process.

“I’m really proud to be part of fellow American company in pursuit of F1. We both have a strong history in racing and together we have a lot to offer. I believe it is going to be an amazing pairing.”

There remain other issues to settle. The FIA and Formula One have to select the 11^th team.

“In the end, it is still an FIA series,” Andretti said. “The president has showed he’d really like to have 11 teams on grid. He is a racer and understands the importance of that for the series itself. We feel very confident when expression of interest goes out with Cadillac, we have a very good shot at checking every box and being on the grid soon.

“The engine is something we’ll talk about later.”

The team may have to begin with a Honda engine while the Cadillac engine completes its development.

Formula One has said no new team will hit the grid before 2026, but Andretti is hopeful it will be sooner.

“It all depends on the expression of interest,” he said. “We will be on track as soon as it makes sense. There will be a power unit more collaboration with another manufacturer.”

Also, both Andretti and General Motors will continue with its other racing interests including the NTT IndyCar Series, Imsa and in GM’s case, the Nascar Cup Series. The Chevrolet brand competes in Nascar, IndyCar and Imsa.

Andretti is a Honda team in IndyCar.

“Our IndyCar series and Imsa series are very important to us as well,” Reuss said. “We want to keep all those facets intact and very much healthy from a series and participation standpoint for our brands.”

The addition of Andretti to the Formula One grid would also be positive for IndyCar as one of its own would be taking on the best teams in the world. Andretti competed in F1 as a driver for McLaren in 1993 but struggled for variety of reasons. Herta has tested for McLaren F1 and crew extremely high praise from McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown, who believes Herta is “ready now” for an F1 ride.

Roger Penske owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar, the Indianapolis 500 and the most successful team in American racing, Team Penske. In 2022, Penske became the first team owner in racing history to win the NTT IndyCar Series championship and the Nascar Cup Series Championship in the same season.

In 1974, Penske Cars was a Formula One participant with Mark Donohue as the driver for two F1 contests with plans on a full season in the Formula One World Championship in 1975. Those plans were tragically impacted when Donohue died from a severe concussion sustained in a crash in the final practice session before the Austrian Grand Prix.

Penske is the last team owner with the ambitious plan to compete in both IndyCar and Formula One at the same time.

I contacted Penske Thursday night to ask his thoughts on seeing Andretti Global and General Motors move one step closer to an American team owner, taking an American manufacturer with an American driver to Formula One.

“Congratulations to Andretti Global and Cadillac on today’s announcement and their collective efforts to enter and compete in Formula 1,” Penske said. “Michael (Andretti) and General Motors are long term partners of IndyCar, and I am excited to see what they can accomplish in Formula 1.”