Grand Prix Rejects

Whilst we know that the attempts by the Andretti's to get an entry failed, it would appear that Dan Towriss, having replaced Michael Andretti, has been continuing negotiations with both General Motors and FOM over a potential General Motors works team. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/ar ... 8nzlwpn83o

It appears that there is now an agreement in principal in place for GM to enter the sport in 2026 under the Cadillac brand, although it appears they are still not planning on producing their own engines until 2028 (the current speculation is they will use Ferrari's engines for 2026 and 2027 as an interim measure). The Andretti's, meanwhile, appear to have been almost entirely sidelined - Mario Andretti is being notionally kept on the board in an advisory capacity, but Michael is out of the picture and there is no reference to the Andretti name in any of the announcements.

Sidelining Michael Andretti does seem to have been part of the reason why the new deal has been accepted, as it seems that Michael has ended up alienating both FOM and his business partners with a reportedly rather clumsy negotiating style (plus some rather costly blunders in some of his other business ventures). Added to that, there are rumours that GM are prepared to pay a larger anti-dilution fee of $450 million - although the current anti-dilution fee is $200 million, that is expected to increase under the terms of the new commercial agreement that will be in place from 2026 onwards.

The one other notional link to the Andretti's is the speculation that Colton Herta is under consideration as a potential candidate for the Cadillac team, although it is still early days.

Yeesh, all it took was getting Michael out? Is he really that bad?

mario wrote: ↑26 Nov 2024, 21:03although the current anti-dilution fee is $200 million, that is expected to increase under the terms of the new commercial agreement that will be in place from 2026 onwards.

That is indeed a funny coincidence!

"I would like to enter Formula 1. Here is the $200 million you asked for."

"Actually, now it's $450 million!"

At LONG LAST!

Row Man Gross-Gene wrote: ↑26 Nov 2024, 22:13 Yeesh, all it took was getting Michael out? Is he really that bad?

He must have upset a lot of people if he was the sticking point in getting the deal over the line, usually money makes everyone get along just fine.

"Don't speak to me like that you loser, I came third at Monza!!"

CoopsII wrote: ↑27 Nov 2024, 19:51.

"Don't speak to me like that you loser, I came third at Monza!!"

Michael Andretti: I scored my first podium in my last race.
Kevin Magnussen: I scored my last podium in my first race.

Har1MAS1415 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 19:36 https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/ferra ... /10681392/

It came as a bit of a surprise for me. This suggests we should not expect Cadillac to have a winning car for at least the first few seasons.

Jarvis wrote: ↑15 Dec 2024, 15:22

Har1MAS1415 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 19:36 https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/ferra ... /10681392/

It came as a bit of a surprise for me. This suggests we should not expect Cadillac to have a winning car for at least the first few seasons.

Whilst I note that's probably a bit of a tongue in cheek joke at some of the justifications from FOM, on a more pragmatic note, I suspect that the team probably will view the 2026 and 2027 seasons as a bit of a holding pattern.

Setting the team up from scratch is going to require quite a bit of initial capital expenditure and recruitment, and it's likely they're going to be spending a fair bit of time in the first few years just building up their ability to produce things in-house and developing their staff. It's also not entirely clear whether they are still going to go ahead with Michael's original plans for distributing the design and construction work across four different facilities, or whether, now Towriss is running the show, he's planning on scaling back some of Michael's grand ambitions and having a more rational set-up.

Jarvis wrote: ↑15 Dec 2024, 15:22

Har1MAS1415 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2024, 19:36 https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/ferra ... /10681392/

It came as a bit of a surprise for me. This suggests we should not expect Cadillac to have a winning car for at least the first few seasons.

Well, since Haas only has one pole to show for nearly a decade's worth of effort.....

https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/4295 ... ac-sources

Mario has always been very high on Danny, and his "Q Rating" (is that still a thing?) in America was probably the highest of all F1 drivers. Not sure why he would turn this down. Of course, Bottas is still around and presumably has a phone.......

Wallio wrote: ↑20 Dec 2024, 16:43 https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/4295 ... ac-sources

Mario has always been very high on Danny, and his "Q Rating" (is that still a thing?) in America was probably the highest of all F1 drivers. Not sure why he would turn this down. Of course, Bottas is still around and presumably has a phone.......

I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to take a bit of a break from motorsport, and more specifically Formula 1.

Whilst he did return to AlphaTauri in 2023, after it was announced that he was going to leave McLaren in 2022, he talked about wanting to take 2023 off to spend more time with his family and friends in Australia as part of a "reset". He did end up returning sooner than that, but I wonder if, given the disappointment of his return and the way that he was ultimately pushed out, he might be more wary of wanting to try his luck again on a second return.

Ricciardo may also have some doubts about the competitiveness of the team in 2026 - even though some development work may have taken place in the background, the team is still going to have to scale up their operations pretty rapidly in little over a year to just get onto the grid. He turns 37 in 2026, and whilst we've seen Hamilton and Alonso continuing to race into their late 30s and early 40s, I'm not sure Ricciardo would be as motivated as those drivers are to continue racing for that long.

I also have to wonder if he really would be that good a choice for them in other areas. He might be popular with the public, but he does seem to have lost some of his self-confidence as a result of his struggles in recent years, and whether he could recover that form is open to debate. Meanwhile, if the team wanted a driver that could provide technical direction, given Ricciardo has been rather public with his disinterest, verging on disdain, for the technical side of the sport, he'd probably be about the worst driver they could pick on that front.