Why General Motors has got the green light that Andretti did not

Formula 1’s statement on Monday that it is moving forward with plans to allow a General Motors entry could be viewed as a complete turnaround in attitude from series bosses.

It was only back in January that FOM declared an application by Andretti-Cadillac to enter F1 was rejected because it did not feel that what was proposed added value to the championship.

In a press release issued at the time that was primarily related to 2025, F1 said: “Our assessment process has established that the presence of an 11th team would not, on its own, provide value to the championship.

“The most significant way in which a new entrant would bring value is by being competitive. We do not believe that the applicant would be a competitive participant.”

The rejection at the time triggered controversy and left Andretti hitting back – and taking its complaints to American politicians – in its bid to force a rethink. It also kept pushing on with its car preparations for 2026 at its new Silverstone base, even though there seemed to be no route for it to get an entry.

Fast forward to now, and F1’s attitude is very different. Where once the door was firmly shut in Andretti’s face despite General Motors’ involvement, now there are open arms.

So what has changed?

Part of it is down to the personalities involved, but more of it involves the shifts in the concept of the project that makes it a very different prospect in F1’s eyes.

It was not lost on anyone that in the three-page statement that FOM put out on Monday regarding the entry, there was not a single reference to the Andretti name.

Instead, the only hint about the involvement of any of the previous parties was a line about ‘partners at TWG Global’ – which is the company run by Dan Towriss, who took over operations at Andretti Global when Michael Andretti recently took a step back.

Michael Andretti and F1 had never particularly seen eye-to-eye on matters, but it was his decision to move away from day-to-day involvement in the squad that set in motion the chain of events that has led to today.

For Andretti’s exit opened the door for Towriss to take a pragmatic approach and realise that, if he was going to find a way to convince F1 to get an entry approved, things would have to be done in a different way with a much greater involvement from General Motors.

Autosport understands that key to getting F1 interested was…