Ooh! Cadillac says it’ll build an F1 engine for Andretti

Big - and probably entirely irrelevant - news just in: General Motors has officially registered as an F1 engine supplier with the FIA, opening the door for it to build a powertrain for the proposed new Andretti F1 team.

Andretti’s bid was given the green light by the governing body last month, having answered the FIA’s call for new teams back in January with GM brand Cadillac signed up as a partner.

The problem (one of many, depending on who you ask) is that Cadillac’s involvement at that point amounted to… not very much at all. No promise of engineering know-how, just a vague commitment to be along for the ride. A bit like how the current Alfa Romeo team has really just been Sauber all this time.

That has now changed. “We are thrilled that our new Andretti Cadillac F1 entry will be powered by a GM power unit,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “With our deep engineering and racing expertise, we’re confident we’ll develop a successful power unit for the series, and position Andretti Cadillac as a true works team.

“We will run with the very best, at the highest levels, with passion and integrity that will help elevate the sport for race fans around the world.”

Apparently GM is already working on prototype tech for its F1 engine, and it reckons it’ll be in a position to start supplying Andretti in 2028.

That leaves two issues. The first is that F1’s next generation of engine regs (calm down people, they’ll still be V6 hybrids) kick in in 2026, which means Andretti (which has made noises about entering from 2025) needs to piggyback off one of Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull Powertrains or Renault (aka Alpine) in the meantime.

It had an agreement with Alpine, but that’s since expired and it’s not clear which outfit would draw the short straw if push came to shove.

The second problem is that Andretti now needs to agree a commercial agreement with F1 in order to officially join the grid, and that still looks incredibly unlikely given the widespread opposition to Andretti from the existing 10 teams. Politics, huh?

So, despite today’s announcement it’s still a long shot that GM will join newbies Audi and returnees Honda in F1’s engine manufacturer pool any time soon. Still, maybe some CEO lobbying at this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix will change that…