The Andretti Cadillac F1 team is well under development. The organization fully plans to race in the 2026 season, and even signed on veteran F1 engineer Pat Symonds to help build a competitive Caddy-backed race car for competition when the time comes. However, plenty of opposition has made the road to F1 has been anything but smooth for the luxury marque, but there may be another way to get Caddy in by purchasing an existing F1 team instead of establishing a brand new one.
According to Reuters, the president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), Mohammed Ben Sulayem, suggested that Andretti Cadillac look into buying out an established F1 team. His reasoning? Purchasing one of the existing 10 teams would be quite a bit easier than pushing to bring an 11th team to the grid and diluting revenue shares, which has rubbed existing organizations the wrong way since the beginning.
“I would advise them [Andretti Cadillac] to go and buy another team, not to come as the 11th team,” Sulayem said. “I feel that some teams need to be refreshed. What is better? To have 11 teams as a number or 10 and they are strong? I still believe we should have more teams but not any teams. The right teams. It’s not about the number, it’s about the quality.”
Teams teams like Haas, Alpine, and Red Bull could benefit from an overhaul to make them competitive once more, meaning they are potential options for an Andretti Cadillac buyout.
“It’s about having the right team, not to lose a chance or an opportunity where someone like GM with a PU [power unit] is coming to Formula One,” Sulaymen said. “Imagine the impact. We have three races in America. We have such a huge fan base. But we don’t have a proper [U.S.-based] team. I’m so happy to have Ford in [building engines in 2026] but imagine having GM and imagine having American drivers.”
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