Formula 1 gave the red light to the formula project led by Michael Andretti. The US team’s entry into Formula 1 could be timely in 2028 at the earliest.
The Formula 1 management has rejected Andretti Formula Racing’s application to join the F1 racing series in 2025 or 2026.
Liberty Media, the F1 company that runs motorsport’s premier class, said on Wednesday that it is ready to reconsider the issue in 2028, when General Motors might have an engine ready for races.
The international automobile association FIA announced at the beginning of October last year that it had accepted Andretti Formula Racing as a new candidate for formula teams.
However, the process became more complicated just a month later when General Motors announced that it would not become an engine supplier until 2028.
– Our evaluation group concluded that the presence of the new, 11th team in itself would not offer added value to the series at that stage. “While the Andretti name brings some additional recognition to F1 fans, our research shows that F1 would provide more value to the Andretti brand than vice versa,” F1 said in a statement.
In addition, F1 stated that a possible eleventh team would increase the operational burden of race organizers, cause some of them significant additional costs and reduce the technical, operational and commercial facilities of other teams.
Liberty Media, which owns F1, has only been interested in a new team if General Motors has a race-built, impactful engine.
– The most significant way in which a newcomer brings added value to the series is that the team is competitive. We do not believe that the applicant would still be competitive in this case. Every new team must acquire a mandatory power source, and develop it even before participating in the racing series, so that it does not damage the prestige and status of the F1 series, stated the release.
If Andretti had received approval for his new team, it would have had to use another manufacturer’s engine until 2028. There are currently ten teams competing in the F1 manufacturers’ series.
Urheilu’s F1 expert Jukka Mildh already told last fall that behind are the days when you could try out for formula one, if you could manage, and then only three races were run. The business model in question is no longer allowed, warned Mildh earlier.