Michael Andretti’s bid to join the Formula One championship has been forwarded to the commercial rights holders after being approved by the sport’s global governing body on Monday.
Andretti, who began a partnership with General Motors’ brand Cadillac in January, is the only applicant that the International Automobile Federation (FIA) passed on to the next stage of evaluations from a total of four bidders.
The FIA has officially informed all applicant teams of their findings after a thorough appraisal.
Following the call for Expressions Of Interest in February, the FIA has applied a process of due diligence during which the applicants were assessed on the sporting and technical ability, the ability of the team to raise and maintain sufficient funding to allow participation in the championship at a competitive level and the team’s experience and human resources.
Selection criteria also included sustainability management in line with the FIA’s ambition of achieving the sport’s goals for net-zero by 2030. Any prospective F1 team was also required to illustrate how they intend to achieve a positive societal impact through its participation in the sport.
As part of the agreed process of the Expressions Of Interest protocol, the FIA findings on Andretti Formula Racing LLC’s submission will now be passed to Formula One Management (FOM) for commercial discussions. Liberty Media, which controls the sport’s commercial rights, said they will now conduct their own assessment of “the merits of the remaining application”.
The FIA launched the expansion process looking for one or more new teams in February this year, to which the current 10 teams hold a reserved attitude. For them, it remains questionable whether the U.S.$200 million entry fee of a new team, which will be shared evenly among the 10, is enough to compensate the total revenue being diluted.
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem said: “The FIA was very clear in establishing stringent criteria for entry from the outset of the Expressions of Interest procedure. Our objective, after rigorous due diligence during the application phase, was to only approve prospective entries which satisfied the set criteria and illustrated that they would add value to the sport.
“The FIA is obliged to approve applications that comply with the Expressions of Interests application requirements and we have adhered to that procedure in deciding that Andretti Formula Racing LLC’s application would proceed to the next stage of the application process. In taking that decision, the FIA is acting in accordance with EU directives on motor sport participation and development.
“Andretti Formula Racing LLC was the only entity which fulfils the selection criteria that was set in all material respects. I congratulate Michael Andretti and his team on a thorough submission. I also want to thank all prospective teams for their interest and participation.
“The Expressions of Interest process builds on the positive acceptance of the FIA’s 2026 F1 Power Unit Regulations among existing OEMs which has also attracted further commitment from Audi, Honda and Ford and interest from Porsche and General Motors.
“I would like to thank all of the FIA team members involved in the Expressions of Interest process for their tireless efforts in ensuring a diligent assessment of all of the applications received.”
