Well, this is a bolt from the blue: If reports are to be believed, General Motors is in advanced talks to become the 11th team on the F1 grid in 2026. Wowzers.
Wowzers because…it looked like the trail had gone cold. Andretti’s initial bid was rubber-stamped by the FIA in October 2023, but harpooned by F1 itself just a matter of weeks later on the grounds that a new team wouldn’t “provide value to the championship.”
But F1’s assessment went further than that: its withering conclusion was that Andretti didn’t understand “the scope of the challenge involved”, and it wasn’t convinced the new outfit “would be a competitive participant.” Ouch.
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So what’s changed? Well, in September Michael Andretti—the divisive ex-F1 and IndyCar driver who’d been fronting the bid—stepped away from running Andretti Global, with majority control passing to new owner Dan Towriss.
And don’t forget F1 had left the door open to a new team in 2028, which is when the GM-supplied engine would’ve been ready for Andretti to use.
GM’s power unit commitment still stands, apparently. And it’s now prepared to go even further than that, with reports suggesting it will enter F1 as an owner with Andretti looking after the day-to-day running of the team.
This still doesn’t quite explain the sudden change of heart: most if not all of the existing teams were dead set against having another two cars to race against, mostly for $$$-based reasons.
Might it be something to do with the Department of Justice’s investigation into F1’s rejection of Andretti’s first bid? When that was announced in August, F1 implied it was confident that no antitrust rules had been breached…perhaps a compromise deal with GM is also a handy ‘Get Out of Court Free’ card? Just a theory.
So, it looks like we might have 22 cars on the F1 grid after all in 2026. Happy about that?
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
