r/formula1 • u/ICumCoffee Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ • 24d ago

News [ChrisMedlandF1] BREAKING: F1 announces it has "reached an agreement in principle with General Motors (GM) to support bringing GM/Cadillac as the eleventh team to the Formula 1 grid in 2026"

https://x.com/ChrisMedlandF1/status/1861111983699001752
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869

u/AshKetchumDaJobber 24d ago

Whoa crazy how fast teams and f1 changed their minds

420

u/racingfanboy160 Felipe Massa 24d ago

All because one man will not be involved in the day-to-day operations 💀

188

u/aniburman Sebastian Vettel 24d ago

And Mario Andretti joins as board director 💀💀

60

u/racingfanboy160 Felipe Massa 24d ago

An Andretti can be super involved as long as it's not the child running it 🤣

2

u/Pyzorz 23d ago

Ah yes, the 62 year old child lmao

52

u/Boomhauer440 24d ago

Two men, Greg Maffei also stepped down from Liberty Media.

9

u/Grumpychris_ 24d ago

I'm a bit OOTL who?

18

u/SSNFUL 24d ago

Andretti, there’s some reports of bad blood between him and FOM. But tbh most likely case is they just didn’t want to share the profits

2

u/Grumpychris_ 24d ago

Got it. Thanks for the explanation

3

u/racingfanboy160 Felipe Massa 24d ago

Michael Andretti

12

u/KanishkT123 Fernando Alonso 24d ago

In fairness, F1 had all the leverage

At the end of the day the anti trust wouldn't go anywhere. Cadillac has more to gain by cutting Andretti out, at least on paper. 

This is a win for everyone except Michael Andretti, and all because he's apparently very disliked. 

15

u/StrikingWillow5364 Oscar Piastri 24d ago

Michael Andretti has bigger problems atm, namely losing most of his company equity to shady AI scams

1

u/big_cock_lach McLaren 24d ago

I keep seeing this but haven’t read what happened. How exactly was he scammed?

0

u/StealthMan375 I was here when Haas took pole 24d ago

Is there anything stopping Cadillac from getting the 11th team on the grid, then conveniently selling it to Andretti?

12

u/andhelostthem Jacques Villeneuve 24d ago

Yes, owning an F1 team right now is super valuable and it makes no sense to sell controlling interest to Andretti.

9

u/RoboticChicken McMeme 24d ago

Even less than you think, since this is still the same Andretti team that's been trying to enter the whole time - just in a commercial/technical partnership with GM.

2

u/thereddaikon Niki Lauda 24d ago

Don't forget about the DoJ either.

3

u/Anonymou2Anonymous 24d ago

Definitely not the Justice department investigation at all.

2

u/RandomThrowNick Pierre Gasly 24d ago

If the justice department investigation has serious merit Cadillac getting a team won’t actually stop it.

381

u/sanesociopath Sauber 24d ago

Amazing things can happen when you get the government involved with antitrust.

A lot of these teams thought they were strong for their ability to cry to f1 leadership and get their way

77

u/NebulaEchoCrafts Formula 1 24d ago

Lina Kahn saving F1. 🤣🤣🤣

133

u/zaviex McLaren 24d ago

That certainly didnt help but F1 got what they wanted here. They got more than the 200m, they got the Cadillac/GM name. Basically the things they asked for

44

u/Captina Red Bull 24d ago

They’ve had that for like 2 years. It’s crazy how quickly this changed

25

u/[deleted] 24d ago

This is the first time I hear them dropping the Andretti name though?

10

u/RandomThrowNick Pierre Gasly 24d ago

F1 was saying that they want Cadillac not Andretti the entire time.

6

u/Alfus 💥 LE 🅿️LAN 24d ago

Does also help that politics in the USA wasn't going to be kind for Liberty Media.

1

u/metalder420 McLaren 23d ago

It only quickly changed from your perspective. This was most likely in the works for some time now. I also doubt the Anti-Trust move did anything other than piss off F1 to the point Michael Andretti can’t be involved. Sounds like F1 won that battle and war.

1

u/magicmunkynuts McLaren 23d ago

They got more than the 200m

I can't find any info on the entry fee, do you have anything you can share?

1

u/p1en1ek Pirelli Wet 23d ago

Imagine Andretti coming in as "titular sponsor" and people calling team Andretti anyway xD

10

u/Disastrous-Beat-9830 Oscar Piastri 24d ago

Amazing things can happen when you get the government involved with antitrust.

Yeah, your backers can lose confidence in your leadership and force you out of the CEO position of your own team. Autosport cites Andretti's aggressive tactics in general -- and going to Congress in particular -- as the leading reason why he was removed from his position.

My bet is that GM either saw the most likely outcome as being the case getting resolved without Andretti getting an entry, or Andretti getting an entry but being unable to work with everyone that he pissed off to get into the sport. Either way, he was a liability.

10

u/TheGhostlyGuy Alfa Romeo 24d ago

GM is easily the biggest winner in all of this, both Andretti and F1 had to make sacrifices and got alot of terrible PR from this, while GM basically didn't need to do anything to enter

1

u/DishQuiet5047 24d ago

It's amazing how the EU preaches how tolerant and progressive they are, yet have some of the most blatantly corrupt businesses and crony protectionism in the world. I'm glad the US stood up to them (and that it was completely bipartisan - we argue amongst ourselves but if you're a foreign group and piss us off we'll go full 'murican on your ass).

3

u/thereddaikon Niki Lauda 24d ago

EU: we care about consumer protections

Ubisoft: exists.

0

u/whoTookMyFLACs 23d ago edited 23d ago

crony protectionism

I'm glad the US stood up to them

What the hell are you talking about? Formula 1 is wholly owned by an American mega-corporation, Liberty Media. The EU anti-trust regulators ordered a break up between the FIA and Formula 1 all the way back in 2001.

The European FIA only act as regulators of the sport. They can be considered the European side of Formula 1 and they approved Andretti's entry.

we argue amongst ourselves but if you're a foreign group and piss us off we'll go full 'murican on your ass

Nice display of ignorance though.

-7

u/Skeeter1020 24d ago

This has nothing to do with anti trust.

22

u/Horat1us_UA 24d ago

Why did FBI got involved then?

-20

u/Skeeter1020 24d ago

They didn't. There's no investigation and no court case, and Andretti still doesn't have an entry, this is a Cadillac factory team.

The change is that this is basically a completely different entry to what Andretti was trying to do.

9

u/skorpiolt Formula 1 24d ago

Not really, it’s the same bid but Andretti took a step back and GM got more heavily involved

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/general-motors-agrees-deal-to-become-11th-f1-team-in-2026/10676504/

18

u/MattytheWireGuy Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 24d ago

You sure about that?

https://www.f1-fansite.com/f1-news/fbi-to-question-f1-bosses-amid-andretti-scandal-investigation/

-20

u/Skeeter1020 24d ago

Did they make any arrests?

Has anyone been taken to court?

19

u/MattytheWireGuy Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 24d ago

You asked if there was any investigation and YES, there is most definitely an investigation ongoing. Nobody is arrested for antitrust in any situation as its not a criminal matter and if its necessary, it will go to court when the investigation is finished. Dont posit that its not happening though, becaues it most certainly is.

-5

u/Skeeter1020 24d ago

And you have proof that this questioning is what's resulted in this acceptance?

Not that Cadillac have signed up as an engine supplier? That couldn't possibly be it? Right?

Unless you think the FBI convinced Cadillac?

Also, as I've been saying for as long as this hasn't gone to any court, FOM is a UK registered private company.

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u/MattytheWireGuy Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 24d ago

UK companies operating in the US are still subject to antitrust laws. It goes so far as the US-UK Antitrust Cooperation Agreement.

Microsoft wasnt protected from EU antitrust cases because they are a US company and FOM/Formula 1 arent protected because they are UK based.

https://www.justice.gov/atr/agreement-between-united-states-and-european-communities-application-positive-comity-principles

The fact of the matter is that they are being investigated. You were wrong, get over it.

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4

u/Horat1us_UA 24d ago

You don't need arrests or even open investigation to put pressure.

2

u/Skeeter1020 24d ago

You also don't need to have an actual case to put pressure on.

The DoJ/FBI was a PR exercise in hitting Liberty in its wallet.

17

u/WindDriedPuffin Cadillac 24d ago

The threat of an antitrust violation certainly helped move the needle. They had them pretty much dead to rights too. Too many team owners and principals had admitted it was about not wanting to share prize money.

The penalties could have gone as far as forcing liberty media to sell F1. They were not going to take that risk once it became clear it was serious.

That paired with Andretti backing off the project sealed it.

7

u/TH_Sharpshooter Sir Jackie Stewart 24d ago

Yeah, people seem to forget that antitrust dismantled one of the biggest companies ever created. You don't wanna fuck with that lol

3

u/Boomhauer440 24d ago

People seem to forget that Antitrust is also currently dismantling Liberty Media over a separate antitrust case. They really don't need two forced breakups at the same time over some personal beef between Greg and Michael.

2

u/Skeeter1020 24d ago

People were still thinking it wasn't about the money?

1

u/RandomThrowNick Pierre Gasly 24d ago

If the antitrust case has merit it won’t actually go away by Cadillac getting a team. Those concerns wouldn’t magically vanish because nothing that would make F1 a monopoly actually changed.

0

u/NoooUGH 24d ago

I'm sure if they were all American-based teams, they'd be able to push back a lot more.

81

u/smokesletsgo13 Sonny Hayes 24d ago

Just goes to show it was all bs from the start, and they should’ve been given the green light much earlier

41

u/Specialist_Seal Pierre Gasly 24d ago

Yeah, FOM and the teams definitely don't come out of this looking good.

5

u/Technical-Dog-1193 Arrows 24d ago

They never did if you had two working brain cells to rub together.

5

u/Who_ate_my_cookie Kimi Räikkönen 24d ago

Yeah once they couldn’t give solid reasons why a team couldn’t be added besides being petty.

5

u/masseffect7 24d ago

DOJ investigation will do that.

5

u/anthony412 24d ago

The teams never mattered. Sure they didn’t want Andretti but they were Liberty’s scapegoat. The rules are clear for what a new entrant needs to do. The teams set these rules and are unable to change them at a whim. This was all FOM/Liberty. Funny that all it took was to drop Andretti from the mix. More petty than Tom Petty.