"There’s nobody out there doing that" - When Michael Andretti pushed for an American presence in Formula 1

Michael Andretti's push to enter F1 turned into a love-hate game that eventually ended with rejection. However, the vision that he had wasn't just limited to expanding the scope of his namesake organization, Andretti Global. The IndyCar legend wanted to build a competitive American team that would disrupt the F1 paddock positively, bringing new talent to the pinnacle of motorsport.

However, he was met with resistance from the existing 10 teams, which feared the dilution of prize money upon an 11th team's arrival. In 2022, Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner also stated that an American driver racing in F1 would impact the sport better than an American team.

Andretti disagreed with that perspective then and said (via New York Times):

"We want to be an American team that wants to be developing American drivers for the future. There’s nobody out there that’s doing that. That’s where we want to be. There’s no real legitimate road for an American driver to get into F1. There just isn’t. We want to pave the way to F1."

However, after months of lobbying and getting an automotive giant like General Motors on board to back them, the FOM rejected their bid for a 2026 entry in early 2024 based on concerns about value addition and competitiveness. After this, Michael Andretti's father Mario, a four-time IndyCar champ and 1978 F1 champion, got the US Congress involved to question the 'unfair' rejection.

Either way, no significant progress was made on this front and F1's decision to re-evaluate the team for a 2028 entry remained. In October this year, Michael Andretti stepped down from his ownership role at Andretti Global and new majority owner Dan Towriss took over.

Towriss then worked behind the scenes with F1 to help General Motors secure a spot on the 2026 grid as the Cadillac F1 team.

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Michael Andretti was "48 hours" away from taking over Sauber in the pre-Audi era

Michael Andretti at the INDYCAR Series Streets of St. Petersburg (Source: Getty)

In 2026, Audi is set to take 100% control of Sauber's F1 operations. They made the official announcement in March 2024, two years after revealing an interest in a strategic partnership with the team.

A year before that, they weren't even in the picture. In October 2021, Michael Andretti made headlines for nearly completing the purchase of a major stake in Sauber (then-Alfa Romeo).

However, 'control issues' prevented the 1991 IndyCar champ from sealing the deal. In November 2021, he said (via RACER):

"It was really, really disappointing that [Sauber] deal didn’t come together. We were literally 48 hours from getting the deal done at that time as we thought."

All the 62-year-old can do now is vicariously live his F1 dream through his father Mario Andretti, who is the Director of the newly announced Cadillac F1 team.