LAS VEGAS — Formula 1 is expected to approve the grid expansion of an 11th team initially launched by Michael Andretti as early as next week, the Associated Press has learned.

The team will be called Cadillac F1 and will be powered by Ferrari engines when it enters the sport in 2026. General Motors is expected to complete its own Cadillac power unit before the 2028 season.

Numerous industry insiders spoke to the AP about the grid expansion on condition of anonymity because an announcement before Saturday night’s Las Vegas Grand Prix could potentially steal the spotlight from the showpiece event. F1 calendar.

The late decision to widen the grid for entry launched by Andretti is a turnaround for F1, which initially declined the application despite approval from F1’s sanctioning body, the FIA. The ten existing teams, which have no say, have largely opposed expansion due to the dilution of prize money and the billions of dollars they have already invested in the series.

The teams also argued that Andretti should buy a team rather than expand the grid. However, no team came forward for sale and Andretti already tried in 2020 to strike a deal that would have taken over the existing Sauber team.

The whole situation began to change when Andretti’s father, 1978 F1 champion Mario Andretti, visited Washington, D.C., earlier this year to lobby for support for the Andretti Global effort. That launched a Justice Department investigation into why Colorado-based Liberty Media, the owner of F1’s commercial rights, was denying entry to the U.S. team.

The DOJ’s situation was not improved when Luca de Meo, Renault’s CEO, said in October that he refused to sell the Alpine F1 team because it was a very valuable asset of the company and he called F1 an “exclusive club” that did it. a very lucrative seller’s market.

The DOJ, as part of the discovery phase of its investigation, also allegedly possessed a copy of a WhatsApp group chat between team leaders that may contain damning statements against Andretti’s bid.

The Las Vegas race marks the third and final stop this year for F1 in the United States, where the series has exploded in popularity over the past five years. The three stops in the United States: Miami; Austin, TX; and Las Vegas – more than any other country.

Another significant change in acceptance was Michael Andretti’s decision in September to take a smaller role within his namesake organization and cede majority ownership to the team’s new majority owners, Dan Towriss and Mark Walter, the majority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Although the Andretti Global name is expected to remain in IndyCar, it will be removed from the F1 team as Cadillac plans to make it a true manufacturer-led organization. F1 had always said, since its initial rejection of Andretti’s application, that it would review the expansion request when General Motors was ready to take on a larger role.

Mario Andretti will have an ambassadorial role with the F1 team, but Michael Andretti will be largely sidelined, AP has learned. Michael Andretti ran 13 F1 races during an abbreviated 1993 season and many believe F1’s rejection of his application was due to lingering resentment towards the former driver.

He refused to move to Europe that year and left the United States, where many believe was not a fully focused effort in F1. He was back racing in America the following year.

Another issue in this more than three-year-old saga is the impending resignation of Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei, who was widely seen as one of the biggest opponents of Andretti’s entry. Maffei announced last week that he would step down at the end of the year, but was in Las Vegas all weekend because the event is considered the centerpiece of Liberty’s portfolio.

Executives from Towriss and General Motors also have a large presence in Las Vegas this weekend, but declined to speak on the record due to the sensitivity of the situation. GM executives are guests of the FIA, which has given GM the full support of President Mohammed Ben Sulayem since announcing his plans.

The FIA ​​said at the time that Michael Andretti’s application was the only one of seven candidates to meet all the criteria required to expand F1’s current grid.

The reaction came only from F1, Formula One Management and the majority of the 10 existing teams, most of whom openly wondered what additive Michael Andretti could bring to a series already booming in terms of popularity and financial success at on a global scale.

In fact, F1’s initial rejection of Andretti’s application was extremely personal in that F1 informed the Andretti family that they did not believe they could field a competitive team; the Andretti name does not bring the value to the series that Michael Andretti thinks it does; and that getting on the starting grid in the next two years would be a challenge that Andretti has never faced before.

General Motors, on the other hand, is the best-selling manufacturer in the United States and its arrival has always been welcomed by all current F1 participants. In fact, F1 at one point asked GM to find another team to partner with besides Andretti. GM refused.

There is only one American team on the current F1 grid – owned by California businessman Gene Haas – but it is not particularly competitive and does not field American drivers. Andretti’s dream was to field a truly American team with American drivers.

Despite his application being rejected, Andretti continued to work on both building a car, a racing workshop in England and had a board of job offers for the future team. He will simply have no role in its operations.

There is also some confusion over Andretti’s involvement with his namesake IndyCar team. IndyCar recently reached an agreement on charters for its participants and the final page of the agreement, a copy of which was obtained by AP, includes a disclosure page in which anyone with a controlling interest in the teams must be listed with what percentage of the organization they own.

The copy obtained by AP had the holdings redacted, but an owner was only to be listed if he or she owned more than 10 percent. Towriss signed the Andretti charter agreements.

Fryer writes for the Associated Press.