- General Motors will partner with American racing powerhouse Andretti Global to field a new Formula 1 team, set to be called Andretti Cadillac.
- Andretti Cadillac will submit an official Expression of Interest when F1’s governing body begins the process of considering new teams in the coming months.
- There is still a long way to go before the team becomes official, but the growth of F1 in the U.S. and the involvement of GM is bound to help the team’s bid get through.
In a shock announcement, General Motors and Andretti Global have declared their intentions to enter the Formula 1 championship. The FIA—Formula 1’s governing body—recently revealed it was planning to open the door for new teams to join the grid. Set to be called Andretti Cadillac, the new team will submit an official Expression of Interest when the FIA starts the formal process, the first step towards eventually fielding an entry in the world’s most prestigious form of motorsport.
There is still a long road ahead before this American juggernaut can get its cars on track, and no specific date was set for when Andretti Cadillac expects to enter its first race. If the application is accepted, the team says it will “compete as soon as practical” and will field at least one American driver.
Andretti—which races in IndyCar and Formula E among other series—previously sought to enter the championship on its own but struggled to gain traction. The addition of General Motors—which reclaimed the crown of the biggest automaker in the U.S. in 2022—will likely tip the scales in favor of the new team, since the Cadillac name should help draw more American eyes to the series. The team would be based in the United States, with a support facility in the United Kingdom, similar to the approach taken by the Haas F1 team which is headquartered in North Carolina.
The popularity of Formula 1 has exploded in the United States since the docuseries Drive to Survive debuted on Netflix in 2019, and the 2023 season is set to feature three Grands Prix on American soil. But American F1 fans haven’t really had a hometown hero to root for—neither the drivers nor the team principal for Haas hail from the U.S., and the name isn’t familiar unless you follow NASCAR or work with CNC machine tools. The Cadillac brand promises to bring name recognition for new American fans, and the Andretti name still holds weight among certain demographics who recall the triumphs of Marco Andretti in F1 and IndyCar in the 1970s and ’80s.
While this would be the first time the Cadillac name appears in F1, the brand has a lengthy motorsports history and has found success over the past decade in endurance racing. Cadillac’s DPi race car won the IMSA SportsCar championship in 2017, 2018, and 2021, and took top honors at the 24 Hours of Daytona every year from 2017 to 2020. Along with its newfound desire to race in F1 in the near future, Cadillac will compete in the new GTP class (which replaces DPi) with a new car starting at the 24 Hours of Daytona later this month.
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This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
Source: Motor - aranddriver.com
