Cadillac board director Mario Andretti vows Formula 1's 11th team will be ready for its 2026 entry into the series, even if it will have to take more risks to get there.
After a long-winded saga the Andretti effort to enter F 1 finally succeeded when the team secured a deal around November's Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend. At the time Michael Andretti stepped back from a rebranded Cadillac team, with full works backing by General Motors and headquarters in Silverstone.
By the time lights finally went green the team had already ploughed on for months at its Silverstone base under former Manor team boss Graeme Lowdon, going on a hiring spree that included F1 tech chief and engineering consultant Pat Symonds, and running 2026 car models at Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne.
Speaking to Autosport's sister website Motorsport.com in a wide-ranging interview, team director Mario Andretti says the squad will have to continue to take risks over the coming months, but vows it will be ready to start the 2026 season on a respectable level.
"We'll be ready. Everyone knows what the responsibility is and there's no question about it," the 1978 F1 world champion said. "This has been in the planning all along. As you can see, while things were still not official, we just put the faith in the system that somebody would reward us for all the work and good intentions that had already gone in.
"In any business you have to really believe in what you're doing. It's going to take risks, and many risks were taken already by everyone here hoping that reason would ultimately prevail, and it did. But that's what makes things that much sweeter.
"There are many experienced individuals that have pretty much taken a gamble. It's always a gamble to go with a new situation, but I think it has other incentives too. Everybody obviously looks forward to making their mark and the ambience there is very, very positive. I just love what I get out of the team there. [Graeme Lowdon] is superb; no nonsense, but an individual people can gravitate around because he's a good man."
Andretti hopes the fact that Cadillac wasn't constrained by the development ban on 2026 cars until 1 January - unlike the existing teams - will help balance out the enormous challenge the prospective squad has on its hands to become competitive.
"You try to take advantage of every opportunity in that sense," he said. "When we were not officially involved, we could delve into areas that otherwise you could not. The bottom line is that if you're going to enter something as challenging as this will be, to do it when it's a clean sheet of paper from the regulations standpoint is probably the best time.
"You have a better chance of being up to par with all the experienced teams. You put all this into the equation and hopefully it will work out."
Cadillac, which will be powered by Ferrari customer engines while it develops its own works power units for 2028, has set a mid-year target to finalise its drivers line-up.
IndyCar runner-up Colton Herta is still top of the list, provided he scores eight points in 2025 through his IndyCar campaign and F1 free practice outings to qualify for an FIA superlicence.
Cadillac aims to pair an American driver with an established F1 veteran. In the latter category, some of the available names could include former Red Bull racer Sergio Perez and Mercedes reserve Valtteri Bottas.
"That's going to become official probably mid-year," Andretti revealed. "There are many considerations. If you even read on social media, people are just floating around certain names and so forth.
"But we are obviously looking at every aspect of every opportunity that's there. It's clear that the objectives are to have at least one American driver and then another experienced driver alongside and start like that.
"Looking back at the way Colton has trained from the very beginning of his young career; as you know he started in Formula 3 and so on with the likes of Lando Norris and he's done some F1 testing.
"Actually, [McLaren CEO] Zak Brown gave him a good test at Portimao in Portugal. You should see the report that we got from [team principal] Andrea Stella. And Andrea Stella is an individual that says it like it is, so again he's a great candidate for this.
"All of this has to be proven, of course, but going in I think he’s a good bet in my opinion."
