Why General Motors committing to powering Andretti Global with F1 is so important to bid

In what would appear to deliver a significant boost to Michael Andretti's hopes of fielding a two-car Formula 1 team in the near future, General Motors announced Tuesday the auto manufacturing giant has formally registered with the FIA to become a F1 power unit manufacturer starting with the 2028 season.

"We are thrilled that our new Andretti Cadillac F1 entry will be powered by a GM power unit," GM president Mark Reuss said in a release. "With our deep engineering and racing expertise, we're confident we'll develop a successful power unit for the series and position Andretti Cadillac as a true works team.

"We will run with the very best at the highest levels with passion and integrity that will help elevate the sport for race fans around the world."

In January of this year, GM and the newly rebranded Andretti Global announced a partnership that, if approved, would bring GM's luxury high-performance Cadillac brand to F1 as 'Andretti Cadillac.' The announcement came days before FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem announced on X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) that his organization, which serves as F1's sanctioning body, would explore the opening of the Expression of Interests process that would allow prospective future F1 teams to submit bids and kickstart a lengthy approval process.

Insider: Is Andretti Global (and General Motors) finally closing in on a spot in F1?

Almost immediately, reporters embedded within the global racing series began reporting private pushback among team and series officials regarding Andretti's attempt to field a true American F1 team with ties to an American manufacturer that, at the time, was not yet willing to commit to serving as a new engine manufacturer. Those opposed to the bid went so far as to call the prospective entry a "badging exercise" by GM and Cadillac, as they planned to run a pair of cars powered by Alpine engines with Cadillac branding for an unknown amount of time.

Thus continued what was already a year-plus-long back-and-forth public and private war of words between Andretti's camp and those rooted within F1 -- whether it be F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, Liberty Media executives (who own the series) or longtime team executives like Mercedes' Toto Wolff and Red Bull's Christian Horner -- who long have said the sport doesn't need expansion without solid proof that a new team would be undoubtedly additive to the sport, encouraging Andretti instead to try and purchase a current team. Back in 2021, Andretti's deal to purchase a majority share of the Sauber F1 team, branded as Alfa Romeo for the time being, fell through "at the 11th hour." Attempts since to negotiate for a sale of Haas, Alpha Tauri or other struggling programs have been unsuccessful. In February 2022, Andretti's famous racing father Mario, who raced in F1 from 1968-82 and who owns the last F1 championship and race win by an American driver, announced the launch of Andretti Global's F1 expansion hopes.

From there, it took Andretti and his backers a year just to see a formal expansion process finally open, during which the team began quietly hiring executives and engineers to get the program off the ground while breaking ground on a new headquarters in Fishers that the elder Andretti touts will be "bigger than Ferrari's."

Andretti calls F1 teams greedy: Is he right?

Current teams, who signed the latest edition of the Concorde Agreement that binds teams, the FIA and FOM through 2025 that includes a one-time $200 million anti-dilution fee, largely believe that each of them receiving $20 million from Andretti's backers wouldn't be nearly enough to cover their lost revenue from splitting the prize pool 11 ways instead of 10, particularly with that fee only set to cover losses for a couple years. After that, many of them have resoundingly said, they don't see a new team -- even one as emphatically 'American' as Andretti Cadillac purports itself to be, in an F1 climate that is seeing so much U.S. growth -- delivering enough extra revenue (through higher North American race ticket sales, new team sponsors or new major U.S. race partnerships) to counterbalance their shrinking cut of the pie.

And when Andretti has presented evidence to the contrary, they've instead pushed the goalposts farther, insisting current race venues don't have room to host an 11th team -- even though the Concorde Agreement specifically allows for up to 12 -- and that Andretti isn't really bringing a new manufacturer to the sport like current teams Red Bull (with Ford) and Sauber (with Audi) are in the near-future.

Tuesday's news changes that.

Insider: What Andretti Global's FIA approval means for joining the Formula 1 grid

Additionally, GM's Reuss said this month it is solely interested in powering Andretti and is unwilling to move on to F1 solely as a power unit manufacturer for other current teams, should the Andretti Cadillac bid be denied by FOM, which holds F1's marketing rights and now holds the cards on the potential entry's future. The assertion came after the AP reported in the days after the U.S. Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas in October that F1 officials had asked GM to consider partnering with another team.

Should GM join F1's power unit arms race in 2028, their competitors would include Audi, Ford, Honda, Mercedes, Ferrari and Alpine.

"GM is committed to partnering with Andretti to race in F1," Reuss said in an earlier statement. "The collaboration between Andretti-Cadillac brings together two unique entities built for racing, both with long pedigrees of success in motorsport globally."

In the days following the U.S. GP, Andretti-Cadillac executives were on the ground in Germany putting an F1 test car the team's newly-hired members had built to 2023 specs through wind tunnel testing. This week, they'll be on the ground in Las Vegas for F1's latest spectacle and venture of risk and opulence on U.S. soil, in hopes of ramping up conversations with Liberty Media president and CEO Greg Maffei and Domenicali -- the latter of which the AP has reported has slow-rolled talks with Andretti-Cadillac since the program received FIA approval in October. It's understood Andretti needs a near-immediate decision from F1 in order to be ready to join the 2025 grid.

"We note the FIA's conclusions in relation to the first and second phases of their process and will now conduct our own assessment of the merits of the remaining application," FOM said in a statement last month after Andretti-Cadillac gained FIA approval, notably choosing not to note the entry by name.

Ben Sulayem, as has been the case for nearly a year, has a decidedly different take -- one he expressed Tuesday morning in support of Andretti-Cadillac's burgeoning bid.

"Delighted with the news that GM have registered as a (power unit) supplier for FIA F1," Ben Sulayem posted on X. "The presence of iconic American brands Andretti and GM are good for the sport."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: GM will produce F1 power units, should Andretti Global be approved