This is the hot news at the start of the weekend in Las Vegas. According to several very well informed sources such as RacingNews365, F1 could indeed have an 11th team on the grid from 2026. An agreement would have in fact been found between all the parties involved so that the team Andretti, linked to General Motors for two years in its F1 project, enters the grid from the next regulatory change in a year.
Not sure, however, that this 11th team will be present under the Andretti name, since it seems that GM has been asked by the promoter to get more involved in order to give substance to the candidacy. In recent years, Michael Andretti, the team boss and son of world champion Mario, has been quite vocal in the press, regularly testifying – and not always in the right way – of his frustration and incomprehension with the lack of consideration from the F1 teams, who have never been very excited about the idea of sharing the financial cake without being sure that this 11th team would make it bigger. And if they do not have direct decision-making power, the FOM will never move forward without their consent.
Why such an about-face?
The gap had become so great between Michael Andretti and the team bosses in F1 that it is difficult not to see the resignation of Mario's son as a sacrifice for the good of the family team. Because there could indeed be a future in F1 for the project. As a reminder, Andretti was the only team to have successfully passed the FIA expression of interest process and to have been initially offered to F1, before the FOM, which had the final say, finally refused in January last.
One of the refusal factors then put forward by the FOM was the fact that it would take around two years for Andretti as a customer team before becoming a factory team by 2028 with the support of General Motors. under the name Cadillac, and that it preferred to rule again on the file for a possible arrival in 2028 as an engine team directly. Things seem to have evolved, and undoubtedly the increased potential presence of GM in the project will reassure the teams, and therefore the FOM.
There is another important clue regarding an effective takeover of General Motors in the project. At a press conference this Friday, Toto Wolff recalled in a sarcastic tone that he has mastered something not trivial to perfection: “I spoke to Mario once. I haven't spoken to his son. I haven't spoken to the other people who are behind this. I don't know who they are. So I know GM. GM is great.”
The trend would therefore be for the American team to arrive in 2026, under a still unknown name and with GM in the front line. Honda and Ferrari could be obliged to supply an engine, knowing that Audi and Red Bull Powertrains will be newcomers and that Mercedes will already supply three teams. The end of the Renault engine from 2026 is perhaps what ended up making the FOM change its mind…
