Charlotte (North Carolina, USA), March 3: The Andretti family dream to enter an American team in Formula 1 will finally reach the starting grid when the season begins this weekend with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
Everything about the team will look different than what Michael Andretti had envisioned. In fact, he’s not even part of the project that after nearly five years has at last come to life.
Instead, Cadillac F1 is now the property of TWG Motorsports – led by Mark Walter and Dan Towriss – and General Motors. Walter’s group is all-in on sports properties; he is the controlling owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a major stakeholder in the Los Angeles Lakers, and owns the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, a stake in Chelsea FC, the Professional Women’s Hockey League and the Billie Jean King Cup.
Towriss has Andretti Global in IndyCar, Spire Motorsports in NASCAR, Wayne Taylor Racing in IMSA, as well as his day job as founder and CEO of financial services company Group 1001.
Along with General Motors, this group has taken a long-winding project to get to the starting grid Sunday in Australia extremely serious.
When F1 initially denied the application, they pressed on and continued working on a car and engine even without approval to join the globetrotting series considered the most popular form of motorsports in the world. “Work continues at pace,” they all said as they worked behind the scenes to gain approval.
It was stamped official exactly one year from Sunday’s season-opening race.
The team has hired Sergio “Checo” Perez of Mexico and Valtteri Bottas as the veteran drivers to build the program. It doesn’t hurt that both are extremely popular – Perez is a national hero in Mexico – and General Motors happens to sell many, many cars in that country.
“We ran into a lot of obstacles, a lot of voices telling us not just no,’ but never,’” said Towriss about the team’s fight to the grid. “Formula 1 is innovation on the biggest stage possible, and the US didn’t really have a seat at that table. To now come in with General Motors and the Cadillac brand, that’s something we’re tremendously proud of.”
What to expect?
As the first new team on the grid in a decade – Haas, also an American team, entered F1 in 2016 – many expect Cadillac to be the worst in the series for now. Its engine isn’t ready and Cadillac will lease from Ferrari for the first two seasons. (AP)
