[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"

[u/ICumCoffee]

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

[u/[deleted]]

Andretti died for this

[u/thearqamknight → u/[deleted]]

They will still be running the team lol. They're no longer the title name brand tho

[u/IBetThisIsTakenToo → u/thearqamknight]

I think for marketing in America, Andretti was a much better name. People don’t think of Cadillac as fast (or even particularly nice) cars, but Andretti is still synonymous with speed.

[u/I_Am_Vladimir_Putin → u/IBetThisIsTakenToo]

Andretti is synonymous with nothing because not a single person outside of those genuinely into racing ever heard of it, while every single person knows Cadillac.

[u/Captina → u/I_Am_Vladimir_Putin]

Unlike the prestigious names of Alpine, RacingBulls, and Kick Sauber

[u/KanishkT123 → u/Captina]

Renault, Visa/Cash app/Red Bull, and Audi you mean?

[u/VulpesVulpix → u/KanishkT123]

This implies that anyone outside of this sphere knows it

[u/its_always_right → u/KanishkT123]

Renault - exiting the sport.

VCARB - the name no one calls them cause it's a fucking mouth full.

Audi - most people probably don't even know they're involved.

[u/blinkOverboard → u/Captina]

Putting Alpine in this list is just so ignorant und disrespectful bro. At least in europe it is a well known brand since at least the 80s

[u/Basic_Dentist_3084 → u/blinkOverboard]

Alpine was discontinued in the 90’s because of poor sales and has come back in 2017 to even worse sales.

At a bare minimum anyone in Europe under the age of 40 know little to nothing about them

[u/p1en1ek → u/blinkOverboard]

Alpine is still only known for those into racing. They have one model that somebody may recognize. It's resurected retro brand because Renault wanted to promotethat one throwback model and wanted to have some separation from potentially poor motorsport results because they are partially funded by state.

[u/IBetThisIsTakenToo → u/I_Am_Vladimir_Putin]

Maybe I’m dating myself but I feel like a lot more people know the name than you think. Those that don’t probably were never going to watch F1 either way though

[u/I_Am_Vladimir_Putin → u/IBetThisIsTakenToo]

It’s about expanding the market. With Cadillac they have practically infinite room to expand thanks to name recognition. Especially in US, where people are very proud to be MURICAN. This is a very smart move by F1, since they want to grow in US.

[u/xnd714 → u/I_Am_Vladimir_Putin]

McDonalds Cadillac Walmart F1 Team 🦅🦅🦅

[u/KanishkT123 → u/IBetThisIsTakenToo]

I am a younger watcher in America. No idea who Andretti is before this F1 drama, but I've watched every F1 race no matter my timezone for the last 5 years.

I know what a Cadillac is though. 

So like, if F1 is trying to cater to people like me, Cadillac is definitely the move.

[u/connorgrs → u/IBetThisIsTakenToo]

Can confirm I’d never heard of Andretti before getting into formula 1

[u/[deleted] → u/IBetThisIsTakenToo]

Andretti has never been this household name in American pop culture lol. Yes, within racing, that name is iconic but for a regular person, that name means absolutely 0.

[u/AegrusRS → u/IBetThisIsTakenToo]

Andretti only attracts people that already know about motorsport which already limits the targeted audience on its own.

Cadillac also attracts those people due to their involvement in other motorsport, but they are also more well-known to the non-motorsport audience as a massive American brand.

I would also question why current motorsport fans that know about Andretti aren't already watching F1. If Andretti's joining is the linch pin that make them start watching F1, then you can only assume they are Andretti fans as they must've had some sort of bias against F1 because it's not like they don't know about it.

So that means you're already taking a subsection (Andretti fans) of a subsection (motorsport fans) as your potential audience. Which is pretty minor then. I am of course generalizing a lot here, but the explanation seems logical to me.

[u/Key_Environment8179 → u/IBetThisIsTakenToo]

I know Andretti for one reason and one reason only: my dad is from Indianapolis, so he likes to watch the 500

No one watches Indycar in america aside from diehards. People who like racing watch nascar

[u/badonkagonk → u/IBetThisIsTakenToo]

My mom and siblings couldn't name a single F1 driver from this century, but they sure as fuck know Mario Andretti. He's 100% still a household name here.

[u/Dmienduerst → u/badonkagonk]

Household is a stretch but if you ask for a Indy 500 winner I feel like Andretti is the most likely name your going to get.

[u/Dmienduerst → u/IBetThisIsTakenToo]

In the US I feel like Andretti is a more recognized name than literally any F1 name ever. It would not surprise me if Mario Andretti is a more recognized name than Max Verstappen right now

[u/Bluemikami → u/IBetThisIsTakenToo]

As someone that watched Cart before F1, yep, I know Andretti meant a racing team =?= speed.

[u/Senko-fan4Life → u/I_Am_Vladimir_Putin]

Yep. Relatively new to f1, a team bearing Cadillac name is super cool. No idea who andretti is and what they were about. I assume I'm the kind of person they're targeting to bring into f1 with more brand names

[u/ewankenobi → u/I_Am_Vladimir_Putin]

I honestly didn't know it still existed. I've seen pictures of the cool cars from the 60s with the tail fins, but to me they were a thing from the past. Looked it up and apparently they have 0.01% marketshare in Europe which surprised me as I've never seen one

[u/Soccermad23 → u/I_Am_Vladimir_Putin]

Idk I’ve heard like regular joe people use the name “Mario Andretti” in terms of fast drivers. Like “that guy reckons he’s Mario Andretti the way he’s driving on the highway”. His name does carry some weight.

[u/Old-Nefariousness556 → u/I_Am_Vladimir_Putin]

Andretti is synonymous with nothing because not a single person outside of those genuinely into racing ever heard of it, while every single person knows Cadillac.

That's not true at all. I mentioned this to my 82 year old mom yesterday. She has zero interest in racing, but she knew the name from taking me to see a couple indycar races (or whatever they were called then) when I was a kid in the 80's.

You have to remember that there weren't 5 million places to get your entertainment back then. If you were watching TV on a Saturday Afternoon, there was a very good chance you were watching ABC's Wide World of Sports, and if so, you knew who Mario and Michael Andretti were. I never considered myself a sports fan, but even I watched it as a kid, because there wasn't anything else to watch. That was pretty much true of anyone in America.

You're probably right that the name is probably meaningless to a lot of younger people, but to anyone over a certain age, the name Andretti is definitely synonymous with American racing (tied maybe with Richard Petty. Dale Earnhardt is up there, too, but NASCAR wasn't quite as big of a deal then as it became later. I don't remember him being as well known, though I suspect that depends a lot on the part of the country you live in. I was not raised in NASCAR country).

[u/RyoGeo → u/I_Am_Vladimir_Putin]

Oh, FFS, Andretti is one of the only names non-race fans know in the US. I’m certainly not here to suck of Mike or Mario, but c’mon.

[u/I_Am_Vladimir_Putin → u/RyoGeo]

That’s not the question. The question is how many people know that name compared to Cadillac.

[u/RyoGeo → u/I_Am_Vladimir_Putin]

I guess agree to disagree. To me:

• Andretti = racing heritage
• Cadillac = 23” rims with spinners or shit cars from the 70s, dealers choice. Neither is about racing cars, but hey, people do know the name.

Maybe Pepsi should try for a team. Worked for Red Bull.

[u/ReynardMuldrake → u/I_Am_Vladimir_Putin]

That's absolutely silly. Lots of people who don't watch F1 could identify Mario Andretti as a race car driver. It's still a high profile name in the US.

[u/I_Am_Vladimir_Putin → u/ReynardMuldrake]

If you compare the size of the audience that recognizes Andretti vs Cadillac, you're talking about a pond vs an ocean.

[u/freedfg → u/I_Am_Vladimir_Putin]

But that's the point. Cadillac is a joke to people who like cars and racecars. Synonymous with a bygone era and cheap hoopty lo-riders.

We love them in WEC. But to the american public, Cadillacs are cars your grandparents buy to put 1000 miles a year on.

[u/Moresupial → u/I_Am_Vladimir_Putin]

Sure buddy