Formula 1 will finally have an eleventh team in 2026.
The series announced Monday that General Motors’ bid to add a team to the grid for two seasons has been approved. The FIA previously approved the GM-backed effort, but F1 and its teams have not signed up to the deal.
“General Motors and Cadillac’s commitment to this project is an important and positive demonstration of the evolution of our sport,” F1 president and CEO Stefano Domenicali said in a statement. “We look forward to the progress and growth of this app. full cooperation and support from all parties involved.”
The announcement comes after Michael Andretti pulled out of Andretti Global’s bid to enter F1. With Andretti’s role now minimized and TWG Global CEO Dan Towriss leading the push, negotiations broke through recently when it was revealed during the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend that an 11th team would join the grid.
According to F1, the GM/Cadillac team will join in 2026, with the team using GM engines “later”. This means the team will have to use engines from an existing engine supplier during their early days.
The GM team will mean that two of the 11 teams in F1 will be American-owned from 2026, along with Haas F1. F1 now has three races in the United States after adding races in Miami and Las Vegas in recent years following the exploding popularity of the Netflix series “Drive to Survive.”
Andretti, a long-time open-wheel racer with a brief stint in F1, had been pushing for the team for years. However, he faced stiff opposition in F1 circles. Andretti’s entry was approved by the FIA, F1’s governing body, in October 2023 but rejected by F1 in January. When the application was rejected, F1 said it did not believe the team would be competitive.
Andretti said he felt the rejection was part of the hatred towards him.
But things changed during 2024 as Towriss took on a bigger role with a push to connect to the grid and a US Department of Justice investigation into the team’s rejection as part of a potential antitrust violation. The fate of that investigation is unclear, though it stands to reason that it could be dropped now that the bid has been approved.
Team GM’s entry into F1 comes as the series introduces new rules for cars after 2025. Other new manufacturers such as Ford and Audi will join the series in 2026. Ford will power the Red Bull cars for four-time champion Max Verstappen, while Audi will take over the Sauber team.
Verstappen clinched his fourth consecutive title at the weekend in Las Vegas, finishing a place ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris. The 2024 F1 season sees two races as the series visits Qatar and Abu Dhabi over the next two weeks.