General Motors’ chief Jim Campbell responds to the F1’s rejection of Andretti Cadillac’s bid to enter in 2026, while keeping options open for 2028.
After Andretti and Cadillac joined hands to join the F1 grid in 2026, General Motors entered in the fray as power unit supplier. The FIA approved its bid from 2028 onward. The idea was for the former to enter with a different supplier in 2026 and switch in 2028.
But this became a point for FOM to reject Andretti Cadillac’s bid for 2026 while keep the options open for 2028 when it could enter the F1 grid together with General Motors. The rejection didn’t come on nicely as chatter continues about the reasoning.
Over the weekend in Daytona, General Motors’ chief Campbell discussed about the chances to join in 2026 and why it couldn’t happen for them as a power unit supplier. He did not have much say on the rejection of Andretti Cadillac considering behind the scenes work
“When you register to be a power unit, there is a deadline to do that, and for us it was last June for 2028,” Campbell said to media including AP News. “If you wanted to develop an engine sooner, then you would have had to register the previous year for that. So, it’s simply a regulation.
“As I said, we believe in the application we submitted and in that application we articulated the abilities of both Andretti as a race team, and Cadillac as a manufacturing and engineering entity. So, we feel confident in the application and are asking for a meeting with FOM.”
Adding more on its application along with Andretti Cadillac and still trusting on the project, Campbell stated: “We feel great about our application. The FIA studied it against other applicants and then gave our application a vote of confidence and approval. So obviously (Formula One Management) made their statement, and we have asked for a follow up meeting with FOM and so we will work through that.
“We do believe between Andretti and Cadillac that we have got the capability of fielding a competitive entry. We are not saying that it is easy, but we do between our two organizations have examples in our history of where we have been successful in other motorsports categories and that is true of Cadillac and Andretti. Our joint teams are continuing to develop our car at pace. So, that is where we are at.”
Here’s FIA on F1 Commission meet
Here’s Andretti Cadillac giving some clarification
Here’s Petronas denying Malaysian GP bid
Here’s FOM rejecting Andretti’s bid
Here’s F1 2024 entry list
Here’s FIA with the 2024 start times
Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact
