After all, Formula 1 will have an 11th team in 2026.
The series announced Monday that General Motors’ bid to add a team to the grid over two seasons had been approved. The FIA had previously approved the GM-backed effort, but F1 and its teams had not approved it.
“General Motors and Cadillac’s commitment to this project is an important and positive demonstration of the evolution of our sport,” F1 president and CEO Stefano Domenicali said in a statement. “We look forward to seeing the progress and growth of this application, some with the full collaboration and support of all parties involved.”
The announcement comes after Michael Andretti pulled out of Andretti Global’s effort to join F1. With Andretti’s role now downplayed and TWG global CEO Dan Towriss leading the push, talks recently broke down, as became clear during the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend that an eleventh team would join the grid.
According to F1, the GM/Cadillac team will join in 2026, while the team will use GM engines “later on.” That means the team will need to use engines from an existing engine supplier during its infancy.
The GM team will mean that two of F1’s 11 teams will be American-owned from 2026 along with Haas F1. F1 now has three races in the United States after adding races in Miami and Las Vegas in recent years following the growing popularity of Netflix’s “Drive to Survive” series.
Andretti, a veteran single-seater driver who had a brief stint in F1, had been pushing to form a team for years. However, he faced stiff resistance in F1 circles. Andretti’s entry had been approved by the FIA, F1’s governing body, in October 2023, but was rejected by F1 in January. When that request was denied, F1 said it did not believe the team was competitive.
Andretti had said he felt the rejection was part of a grudge against him.
But things changed over the course of 2024 as Towriss took on a larger role with the push to join the network and a US Department of Justice investigation into the team’s rejection as part of a potential antitrust violation. The fate of that investigation is unclear, although it is believed it could be abandoned now that the bid has been approved.
The GM team’s entry into F1 will come as the series introduces new car regulations after 2025. Other new manufacturers will join the series in 2026, such as Ford and Audi. Ford will power four-time champion Max Verstappen’s Red Bull cars, while Audi will take over the Sauber team.
Verstappen clinched that fourth consecutive title over the weekend in Las Vegas by finishing one place ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris. There are two races left in the 2024 F1 season as the series visits Qatar and Abu Dhabi over the next two weeks.