Andretti-Cadillac has released a second statement highlighting flaws with Formula One Management’s [FOM] decision to deny it an entry into F1 before the 2028 season.
Having opened up an Expression of Interest process to identify “one or more” new teams, the FIA confirmed last October that it had accepted Andretti’s submitted proposal.
However, F1 announced earlier this week that it had turned down Michael Andretti’s eponymous team, who had been lobbying to join the grid potentially as early as 2025.
But FOM did detail that it would be prepared to reconsider the application come 2028 with the guarantee that General Motors would also enter as an engine manufacturer.
As part of its reasons for not granting Andretti an admission, F1 admitted it cast doubt on the reliance that Andretti could be a “competitive participant” from the outset.
This was related to the operation’s plan to embark upon its maiden season in 2025, which will be one year before a substantial regulation change is scheduled to arrive.
Prior to the verdict, Andretti Technical Director Nick Chester had revealed it was pressing ahead with its F1 plans in the background, including testing a full-scale chassis model in a wind tunnel this year.
But while Andretti admits that 2025 was its initial target, it has clarified that the delay in a decision being made meant it had diverted its ambitions towards the following year.
“When Andretti Cadillac entered the FIA Expression of Interest process almost a year ago, the preferred first year of participation was indicated as 2025,” the statement read.
“The FIA approved our application, with no specific limitation on whether the entry was for 2025 or 2026. Andretti Cadillac has been operating with 2026 as the year of entry for many months now. The technicality of 2025 still being part of the application is a result of the length of this process.”
F1 also claimed that it had granted Andretti an invitation on 12 December 2023 to hold an “in-person meeting at our offices in order for the applicant to present its application”.
Expanding further, the sport’s commercial rights holder reported that “the applicant did not take us up on this offer”, insinuating that Andretti had elected to refuse the chance.
However, Andretti has divulged that such a revelation came as a surprise, with reports now stating that the email had then been discovered in Michael Andretti’s spam folder.
“We were not aware that the offer of a meeting had been extended and would not decline a meeting with Formula One Management,” the statement added.
“An in-person meeting to discuss commercial matters would be and remains of paramount importance to Andretti Cadillac.
“We welcome the opportunity to meet with Formula One Management and have written to them confirming our interest.”
Andretti concluded with a repeat of the closing line it used in its original statement, writing: “Our work continues at pace.”
… it should be GM, bringing Michael Andretti! Not the other way around! If the General Motors people want Formula 1? Then, it should be the GM people who commit, direct without hesitation, on GM’s own merit, and on it’s own dime, not hiding like a bashful 14 year old, inside the boxer shorts of IRL golden boy, Michael Andretti – qed, asj.