Formula One on Wednesday rejected a bid by Michael Andretti to join the racing series as an 11th team.
However, F1 said it may revisit the issue for 2028, when General Motors Co. would have an engine for an Andretti team that would promote GM’s Cadillac brand.
According to an F1 statement (via Motorsports.com), current series race car regulations conclude in 2025, with new specs going into effect in 2026.
Andretti proposed “to design and build a car under the 2025 regulations, and then in the very next year to design and build a completely different car under the 2026 regulations,” F1 said in the statement.
The proposed Andretti team would not have a long-term race engine supply until GM was ready to go in 2028, F1 said. The Detroit-based automaker said in November it “formally registered” as an F1 “power unit manufacturer” starting in 2028 as part of an Andretti team.
“We do not believe that there is a basis for any new applicant to be admitted in 2025 given that this would involve a novice entrant building two completely different cars in its first two years of existence,” F1 said in the statement.
“We would look differently on an application for the entry of a team into the 2028 Championship with a GM power unit, either as a GM works team or as a GM customer team designing all allowable components in-house,” F1 added. “In this case there would be additional factors to consider in respect of the value that the Applicant would bring to the Championship, in particular in respect of bringing a prestigious new OEM to the sport” as an engine supplier.
For now, however, Andretti is on the outside looking in with F1. Team principal Michael Andretti is a successful participant in the U.S.-based IndyCar series.
For the Andrettis, F1 is personal.
Mario Andretti, 83 and Michael’s father, was the F1 driving champion in 1978. Michael Andretti, now 61, was a successful driver in U.S. open-wheel racing. He tried to follow in his father’s F1 footsteps in the 1990s. It didn’t work out.
“I’m devastated,” Mario Andretti wrote on X. “I won’t say anything else because I can’t find any other words besides devastated.”
