Formula One Management (FOM) announced on Wednesday that it had rejected Andretti’s bid to join the series as an 11th team starting in 2025, but welcomed a revised proposal for 2028. While the decision won’t come as a surprise to many given the recent rhetoric from within F1, it is no less disappointing as a result.
In its statement, FOM laid out numerous reasons as to why it had decided to turn down Andretti’s entry.
Among those was a concern that a 2025 entry would require the new outfit to develop two completely different cars in as many years thanks to the 2026 rules reset. This reason is sound in logic, but still flawed as one could argue that Andretti’s dedication to understanding the current ruleset would help it make the step from the 2025 rulebook to the 2026 one with some pre-existing F1 understanding in pocket, rather than starting from scratch for the ’26 car concept.
Regardless, why not just defer Andretti’s entry a year further and allow it to compete on a level playing field with the competition? There are some hurdles to overcome.
Michael Andretti’s eponymous motorsport outfit, supported wholeheartedly by his 1978 F1 World Championship-winning father Mario, competes across the global motorsport spectrum.
Andretti participates in IndyCar, IndyNXT, IMSA, Extreme E, Mexico SuperCopa series, Aussie Supercars and Formula E – the last of which it helped power Jake Dennis – a development driver for the reigning F1 champions Red Bull, ironically enough – to a world title in 2023.
But according to FOM, this isn’t a good enough pedigree – “research indicates that F1 would bring value to the Andretti brand rather than the other way around,” read the F1 statement, all the while noting that the Andretti name does carry some recognition amongst F1 fans. That recognition includes bearing the name of America’s last F1 champion Mario Andretti – a fact not lost on established members of the fanbase and one that could quickly be learned unto new fans, especially given many hail from the United States.
Also, isn’t the point of joining F1 a bid to improve one’s status, to show yourself off on the biggest stage?
Did Haas, which will remain the sport’s latest entrant, join F1 as a selfless act to better the series, or to go racing in the search of success and extending its global reach?
Given Andretti’s bid had garnered significant backing from Cadillac, a subsidiary of the American automotive giant General Motors, it’s safe to assume a considerable effort would be made to ensure its presence made an impact that F1 would find at least somewhat beneficial and give fans something easier to align with than let’s say, Visa Cash App RB or Stake F1 Team.
“The most significant way in which a new entrant would bring value is by being competitive, in particular by competing for podiums and race wins.”
The above statement is perhaps one of the hardest to get your head around. Has any new team in modern F1 history been held to a standard that it should be competing for podiums and race wins from the outset? Let’s not forget, in 2023 only two teams won a race and one of those was victorious in all but one event.
So to assume that a new outfit should be held to a similar yardstick when the majority of the grid can’t attain similar results is quite frankly a ridiculous notion.
The sport used to be welcome to include underdogs and many of those have grown to become part of the F1 franchise in the present day.
Jordan’s journey which began in 1991 with barely enough cash to get onto the grid has stuck through thick and thin to become an ever-growing Aston Martin outfit, Sauber is set to transform into an Audi works team in 2026 and beloved minnows of yesteryear Minardi has gone from Red Bull junior to a team forging its own path and identity.
All three of these teams’ efforts were made to ensure their survival; Andretti Cadillac would come in with far greater stature than any of these outfits did upon entering F1.
The addition of an 11th team would “place an operational burden on race promoters, would subject some of them to significant costs, and would reduce the technical, operational and commercial spaces of the other competitors,” is another peculiar reason for discounting Andretti’s entry.
FOM has mandated its circuits modernise to cope with modern F1 and you’d hope that wouldn’t be done in such a way that only 10 teams could squeeze in the pit and paddock.
The Zandvoort circuit situated in the Netherlands even announced plans to expand the pitlane to add six extra garages. Does that sound like a venue against more teams?
Alas, a major sticking point for FOM is Andretti’s immediate lack of a new and/or works power unit – something Cadillac had intended to produce in 2028. That means Andretti would need a customer engine supply in the interim period had its 2025 entry been accepted, with Renault touted to be the supplier the team had become set on.
F1 argues it “represents a unique technical challenge to constructors of a nature that the Applicant has not faced in any other formula or discipline in which it has previously competed, and it proposes to do so with a dependency on a compulsory PU supply in the initial years of its participation” meaning “we do not believe that the Applicant would be a competitive participant.”
However, established names like Williams and McLaren have relied on fitting a manufacturer’s power unit for years as they lack the resources to do so themselves in-house. But a new team opting to go down that route before introducing a whole new power unit supplier to the series seemingly isn’t suitable enough.
“We conclude that the Applicant’s application to participate in the Championship should not be successful,” FOM said, adding that “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.”
So the goalposts for Andretti have been moved to 2028, rather than simply kicking their ball away and an OEM tie-in seems key in ensuring a second application would be a success.
FOM also said that while the current 10 teams – who in their majority have been vocally against an 11th entry for fear of diluting the prize pot – didn’t have a say in the decision, it “took account of the impact of the entry of an 11th team on all commercial stakeholders in the Championship.”
Performance and logistical concerns aside, F1 and FOM have found themselves in a steady financial situation thanks to recent commercial growth and the current Concorde Agreement runs through 2025, the year in which Andretti wished to join. This agreement, the foundation of a power struggle between the FIA, FOM and F1 teams does include an anti-dilution fee of $200m for new entries, but given recent valuations of teams following investment and series growth have seen the likes of Alpine and Aston Martin labelled with a valuation closer to $1 billion, there’s a call or this fee to be increased for the next Concorde agreement.
So again, why not defer Andretti’s entry to 2026 at the start of a new agreement and request a higher entry fee? It comes back to the list of hurdles that suggest Andretti may never get to realise an F1 dream, leaving fans potentially robbed of a new team and drivers to cheer for against the current establishment. Unsurprising, but still somewhat of a disappointment.
Where Andretti goes from here remains to be seen, for it had pressed ahead with attracting over 100 employees, with a vast majority technically based and led by former Renault engineer Nick Chester and it had started a component wind tunnel programme. Still, F1’s loss is IndyCar, IMSA, Formula E and Extreme E’s continued gain.
Additional reporting by Taylor Powling
Formula One has accepted from the USA, two too many races and is planning for maybe three more according to reports, the worst driver in donkeys’ years, and even the shower of toerags currently holding the commercial rights to the sport. Finally, something worthwhile heads Formula One’s way from that country, and they say no, because some shit teams are scared they are going to get beaten by one team more than they get beaten by every years as it stands. Utterly pathetic. Truth is, any team which can put a car on track which meets the rules, and do it within the set spending regulations, should be allowed to go out and try to qualify for the race. If some new teams do that at the expense of some of the old ones, well that’s the fault of the old ones for being rubbish, and they deserve to get knocked out. Sport is competition, let them compete.
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