US Congress Is Trying To Overturn Andretti’s 2025 F1 Rejection

Earlier this year, US motorsport outfit Andretti’s bid to add an 11th, General Motors-backed team to the Formula 1 grid in 2025 fell at the final hurdle, when F1 itself blocked the entry on the apparent basis that the team “would not add value” to the sport. The decision upset a lot of people: Andretti itself, scores of fans who’d welcome another two cars to the grid, and now, as it turns out, the highest level of the United States’ legislature.

12 members of the United States Congress, comprising both Democrats and Republicans, have co-signed a letter to Greg Maffei, the CEO of F1’s American parent company, Liberty Media. In it, they ask exactly why Formula One Management rejected the entry, positing three questions in particular.

Firstly, they ask exactly why Andretti was rejected by F1 when the FIA had approved its entry. Secondly, and perhaps most pertinently, they question whether Liberty, a US company, is in line with the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act, which “outlaws unreasonable restraints on market competition to produce the best outcome for the American consumer.”

Finally, they ask if General Motors’ plans to re-introduce Andretti’s engine partner Cadillac to the European market played into the existing teams’ opposition, given the potential for it to take market share from the European manufacturers who currently enter F1.

The letter requests a response from Liberty by 3 May, and says that the group is “[ensuring] that any potential violations of US anticompetition law are expeditiously investigated and pursued.” Andretti itself has released a short statement thanking the members of Congress, and on the face of it, remains unbowed by the rejection: it’s just opened a brand-new European base at Silverstone, and is in the process of hiring UK staff.

Much of the original rejection announcement hinged around the fact that Andretti likely wouldn’t have a works Cadillac power unit ready until 2028, and was more amenable to an Andretti entry then.