Andretti Cadillac is fighting hard to get the American luxury marque on the Formula One grid, and so far, the effort has met nothing but opposition from existing teams and even Formula One Management (FOM) itself. To complicate the narrative, another American entity is fighting for a spot on the F1 grid, making the battle even tighter for the Andretti Cadillac partnership.
Per a report from Mirror, Otmar Szafnauer, former Alpine team principal who parted ways with the organization in 2023, has become involved with a rival American F1 team project. Thus far, Szafnauer has been cagey about the details, but revealed that the project has access to the necessary funding to make it to F1.
He said, “I’m a competitor and the one thing that I like more than anything is the competition. So, to come back in a role where I can’t influence how well the team is competing, I don’t think I’d be interested. If it was a role where I could help develop, build, attract the right people to improve a team’s competitiveness, I’d be interested.”
He added, “I’ve been working with some organizations in North America that have the funding to start an 11th team. It’s not Andretti. Now, we’re just putting some of those building blocks in place to make sure that we have everything that’s required in order to be successful to both start a team, but also get an entry. So, you know, that’s interesting too.”
For its part, despite the rejection from FOM, Andretti Cadillac is pushing forward with development and could be ready to field a car as soon as 2026. The organization has already begun testing, and even opened a facility in Silverstone to help keep the project heading in the right direction. General Motors registered to produce power units beginning in 2028, so it would only make sense to put GM engines in a GM race car.
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Comments
No F1 races in the United States until an American team/manufacturer is allowed to field an entry.
Haas is an American team
Yep