FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem is confident that Formula 1’s regulations will ensure that Andretti will have an engine deal in place if it ends up on the grid.
Andretti – spearheaded by Michael, son of 1978 F1 Drivers’ Champion Mario – successfully passed the first hurdle en route to securing a spot in F1 when the FIA accepted its proposal.
The American entity will now be subject to scrutiny by Formula One Management as it now seeks commercial approval to join F1 from either 2025 or 2026 onwards.
General Motors brand Cadillac has partnered with Andretti for the bid, which has split the F1 paddock in two, with some saying no value is being added via an 11th team, but the promise of a Cadillac power unit down the line is a promising one.
However, a Cadillac PU is some way off being a reality, with Andretti needing a customer engine deal in place to start its F1 journey, one which was initially held with Alpine – but Bruno Famin, Interim Team Principal of the Anglo-French outfit has said such a deal has expired.
“We are demanding that and we will see that,” Ben Sulayem told selected media of a Cadillac PU in the future.
“But engines are not built in four or five years.
“At the beginning, Andretti will have to agree on one of two engines.
“It works that, with the rules, nobody can say no to them,” he continued.
“If all the teams say no, then the FIA has the power to go on and say, the least two [engine manufacturers] being used, then we put them in a draw, and we take one.
“It’s not a secret, and I’m sure it is either Alpine or Honda, and one of them would win because that is the rules.”
Ben Sulayem is referring to an item in the F1 rulebook (namely appendix six of the sporting regulations) that states the power unit manufacturer with the fewest amount of customers will be required to supply a new entrant into the sport.
As of 2025, Alpine will be the only PU supplier with one customer on the grid, itself, and a year later Honda will re-enter the fray with Aston Martin as their sole PU customer in a works deal.
Audi, who will also be bringing a PU to the table in 2026, is exempt from the ruling above as they are a new PU entrant.
That leaves Alpine and Honda as potential PU suppliers for Andretti, who would need to secure a deal on June 1 a year prior to its entry (e.g June 1, 2024, if joining the grid in 2025 or June 1, 2025, if joining the grid in 2026).
Despite Andretti previously being linked with Alpine over an F1 engine deal, Honda coming back into the fold for 2026 provides an intriguing alternative, given the Japanese marque already supplies Andretti with engines over in IndyCar and Andretti has a hand in the IMSA effort Wayne Taylor Racing, which runs an Acura (part of the Honda brand) prototype machine.
But the long-term goal remains a GM/Cadillac PU and Ben Sulayem is confident that such an achievement can be made and that it would be for the good of the sport.
“I am optimistic with GM coming with the power unit,” he said.
“I am very optimistic, not just optimistic.
“In the last 20 months to have two major OEMs, which is Audi and Andretti/GM, and to have a power unit from Audi, and we are on the right track of having a power unit from Cadillac, that is an achievement.”
