Michael Andretti states that he already has a technical director hired as he focuses on joining the Formula 1 grid in the coming years.
On Thursday, Andretti Global announced a partnership with General Motors, which would see Cadillac arrive in F1 with Andretti if its bid is successful.
Andretti has been in talks over an entry for several months but is facing resistance from F1 and its teams, who have highlighted that any new entry needs to be credible.
However, it has received support from the FIA, F1’s governing body, who is looking into an expressions of interest process for newcomers.
Speaking to media including Motorsport Week on Thursday, team owner Andretti highlighted that the collaboration with General Motors signals the serious nature of his bid.
“One of the big things was ‘well what does Andretti bring to the party?’ Well we’re bringing one of the biggest manufacturers in the world with us in GM and Cadillac,” he said.
“So that was the one box we didn’t have checked which we do have checked now, and will bring a tremendous amount of support to Formula 1, and it’s hard for anyone to argue with that now.”
Andretti stated in its GM partnership announcement that its main factory would be in the US, having recently revealed plans for a new facility in Fishers, Indiana.
However, it would also have an operation in the UK to assist the day-to-day running of the potential F1 team.
While Andretti said that its entry partly depends on how long the expressions of interest process takes, he says the hiring process for an F1 outfit has already begun – including the signing of a yet-to-be-revealed technical boss.
“We’ve done a lot of hiring, we have a few people already working for us, we have hired the main engineers,” Andretti said.
“So yes, we’re very much down the road on all that. We have our technical director already hired, and we’ll announce that down the road as well.”
Discussion about this post