With Cadillac's 2026 Formula 1 entry now locked in and Dan Towriss' signature on the new Concorde Agreement, the project's leader has shed light on the "intense" road to get there.
Facing staunch resistance from F1 owner Liberty Media and the existing ten teams, what started as an FIA-endorsed Andretti bid turned into a political tug-of-war that reached the upper echelons of the US government.
F1 icon Mario Andretti recounted months ago how, at the 2024 Miami GP, Liberty's then-CEO Greg Maffei approached him and declared: "Mario, I want to tell you that I will do everything in my power to see that Michael never enters Formula 1."
Ultimately, his son Michael Andretti stepping back from his own outfit—and the project rebranded as Cadillac with full GM backing—pushed the entry over the line.
Reflecting on the rocky Andretti-Cadillac saga, Towriss told the Indianapolis Star: "You just have to go back to Greg's quote.
"He said what he said."
Towriss, 51, CEO of TWG Motorsports and now majority owner of Andretti Global, heads the Cadillac F1 program. He recalled how Michael Andretti eventually sought an exit.
"He started to express a desire to step away and that it wasn't fun at that point," Towriss said.
"At that point, it's like 'Ok, let's figure out how to do that'. But obviously, we've had a lot invested in Andretti Global and (Indycar) as a whole. So how do we make this as smooth a transition from that standpoint?"
On the bruising fight to break into F1, Towriss added: "As someone on the inside, the pressure was intense.
"There were some very difficult meetings with F1 and other things happening outside, and when you put these other motorsports series together, it's a big operation, and so I think it kinda brought us to that place.
"It just got very political. There were aspects of the bid that weren't well understood, and it was just difficult. They (F1) felt strongly about certain issues."
Reports indicate Cadillac agreed to a $450 million anti-dilution fee—more than double what previous new teams paid—to ease tensions with the current ten F1 outfits.
