Mario Andretti denies theory surrounding Michael and new F1 team

Mario Andretti has denied claims that the removal of son Michael from fronting the 11th team bid was a factor behind F1's decision to approve Cadillac.

Michael Andretti has long harboured an ambition to enter F1 with his own team, and applied to join the grid after the FIA opened its expression of interest process in early 2023.

F1's governing body then accepted Andretti's bid, which came with General Motors attached as a technical partner, before F1 itself rejected the bid, believing the team would not add enough commercial benefit. However, the door was left ajar for 2028 if GM could provide a power unit of its own. 

During the summer, it was announced that Michael Andretti would be stepping back from day-to-day operations, with Dan Towriss assuming control. 

It was then exclusively revealed by RacingNews365 that F1 had agreed to let a Cadillac-GM team onto the 2026 grid, although most of the ground-work will continue to be carried out by Andretti's operation. 

Given the swift announcement of the acceptance of the 11th team to Michael Andretti's relinquishing of his position, there has been speculation that Andretti's removal was a key part of the bid finally being accepted.

Addressing those claims, 1978 world champion Mario, who is serving as an advisor to the new team, explained that "it wasn't just [about] Michael."

“There's no big issues that I see among the group here that would linger or anything else because, I guarantee ultimately it wasn't just [about] Michael. It's not that simple," Andretti explained to Motorsport.com. 

“There were a lot of things going on, but it happened. It may have made it look like that was the key factor, but it wasn't.

"One way or another, he might've stepped aside a little bit more about the day-to-day situation with them [anyway], so we’re not losing a beat anywhere by going forward here.

"I don't know if there's one thing that all of a sudden brought the thing to fruition. There seemed to be some personal things there that personally, I still do not understand. But it seemed like it came down to that."

Andretti was thinking about standing down

At the 2022 Miami Grand Prix, Michael Andretti infamously tried to get all 10 team principals to sign a document supporting his ambition, only getting McLaren and Alpine to support his plans. 

Mario Andretti hinted that there were further issues at play in the background, and that Michael was thinking about stepping aside before he did so.

“If that was the case, you could see that Michael decided to step aside - I think he was thinking of that anyway, but then you'd have to ask him that," he explained.

“The fact is that it all came together. We can totally analyse the thing until the cows come home, but there were so many things that were not totally clear.

“Again, I wish I could give you a detail that: 'Yes, if you do this, this, and that and the other.' But it just all of a sudden started to come together and there were other things that were going on in the background that might have made a difference."