Tuesday, November 26, 2024, 01:30
If nothing goes wrong in the coming months, the historic automobile corporation General Motors (GM) will be one more actor in the Formula 1 sports circus starting in 2026. According to the principle of agreement announced this Monday between the multinational and the competition organizers most prestigious of the four wheels, the Cadillac firm – one of several owned by GM – will become the eleventh team on the grid starting that season.
It would thus fill the gap opened by those responsible for Liberty Media, the North American media company that owns the rights to F1, to cover the expansion that they had opened in the competition. Former racing driver Mario Andretti initially bid for it through his own team, but after this option was rejected by the organizers, the last American Formula 1 world champion (1978) will now join the GM project. as director within the board of the new team.
General Motors has also registered with the International Automobile Federation (FIA) as a power unit manufacturer to become a full-fledged works team by the end of this decade, according to Reuters. In this way, it would be the sixth engine manufacturer in F1 after Audi, Ferrari, Honda, Mercedes and Red Bull/Ford.
«My first love was F1»
In this new adventure, both sporting and with a certain commercial perspective, GM will partner with the market consulting firm TWG Global and the aforementioned Andretti. “My first love was Formula One and now, 70 years later, the F1 paddock is still my happy place,” the North American champion himself confessed after hearing the news. «Staying involved in this stage of my life is a dream; “I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming,” he added.
The heads of General Motors – owner, in addition to Cadillac, of other automobile brands such as Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Hummer – were already at the Las Vegas Grand Prix held last weekend. There, in the city of casinos, they put a seal on a project that in its initial development, with a greater weight of Andretti but less of GM, was rejected by Formula One last January despite already having the approval of the FIA.
Andretti’s first project was rejected as uncompetitive, but the new one with GM will be reinforced because the corporation will provide its own engines starting in 2028 or 2029.
“With Formula One’s continued growth plans in the US, we have always believed that welcoming an impressive American brand like GM/Cadillac to the grid and GM as a future power unit supplier could bring additional value and interest to the sport,” said the outgoing executive director of Liberty Media, Greg Maffei, to highlight the agreement signed. “We are excited to move forward with the application process for the GM/Cadillac team to enter the Championship in 2026,” he added.
Research in the USA
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who was an early supporter of Andretti’s bid and has continued to lobby behind the scenes for a deal, also expressed his full support for the latest developments. “All parties, including the FIA, will continue to work together to ensure that the process progresses smoothly,” he said in a statement. Among these possible difficulties is an investigation opened by the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives into possible “anti-competitive conduct” at the national level of the General Motors corporation.
In Mario Andretti’s initial project, which was rejected by the organizers of Formula 1 under the argument that they doubted that it was truly competitive or added value to the competition, they left the door open to reconsider their decision from 2028 if GM He ended up making his own engines for those cars. In that first team, which also had Cadillac as a collaborator, Mario’s own son, Michael, a former F1 driver and champion of the CART World series in 1991, appeared as leader.
But Michael Andretti was seen by some Formula 1 officials as a figure rather given to confrontations and who could be controversial. Therefore, in this second project that has obtained the green light from the organizers, it has taken a step back from its daily operational function and has handed over the baton to Dan Towriss, CEO of TWG Global, owner and operator of Andretti Global.
Clause and first movers
According to the British channel BBC, which speaks from high-level sources, GM and TWG will have to cover an anti-cancellation fee of 450 million dollars (almost 431 million euros), the amount of which would be distributed among the ten existing teams in F1 today, in order to secure your entry. The current rate is 200 million, but from 2026 new rules will be applied in the competition and therefore higher costs would also be required.
In any case, General Motors will have to buy an engine for 2026 and 2027 – until, at least, the 2028 or 2029 season it would not have its own to run – and Ferrari is one of the main candidates, since it will have a reserve when Sauber becomes Audi. “This is a global stage to demonstrate GM’s engineering expertise and technological leadership at a completely new level,” said its president, Mark Reuss.
Meanwhile, Cadillac has already assembled a team to work on aerodynamics, chassis and component development, software and simulation of the dynamics of the new vehicle with which they will participate from 2026. Andretti also has a base in Silverstone (England), where it has several employees, including former F1 technical director Pat Symonds as executive engineering advisor.
