In recent months, the FIA officially approved the candidacy presented by Andretti to enter the Formula 1 championship, with confirmation coming only at the end of an evaluation process on sporting, technical, financial and environmental sustainability criteria. However, the American team has not yet received the green light, because once approval has been received from the Federation, it will be necessary to sit down with Liberty Media, which manages the commercial rights of the championship.
To convince the sport's leaders to accept its candidacy, Andretti had announced a partnership with GM, thus putting on the table the possibility of also adding Cadillac to the rich group of manufacturers that the Circus can boast of. However, Formula 1 has always had a certain distrust towards this collaboration, because initially it emerged that Andretti already had a pre-agreement with Alpine for the supply of the Power Units.
In fact, General Motors recently reiterated that it wants to abandon the role of simple partner and wanting to develop its own Power Unit for 2027 or 2028, but until then there would still be a need to start a collaboration with an existing manufacturer. On paper, that partner should have been Alpine, with which a pre-contract had been signed for the supply of the PU to be rebranded under the Cadillac brand.
Photo by: Mark Sutton
Michael Andretti
However, given the delays from the FIA and F1, the pre-agreement with Alpine has since expired. However, Famin explained that Renault (the engine manufacturer, which will become totally Alpine from 2026) is still willing to supply the new team in the seasons before the official arrival of Cadillac. This is not a surprise, partly because the French company currently supplies only one team and is looking for a partner, partly because other manufacturers are unlikely to want to give an advantage to the competition. If the American team achieves its stated goal of being on the grid as early as 2025, it will contest a season with the Power Unit with the current specifications before the new regulations come into force in 2026.
While Andretti clearly has a deadline to be ready to hit the track in 2025, Renault also needs sufficient notice to ramp up production and be able to supply a second team to get all the tools in place. necessary in the production chain.
“We are talking to Andretti and General Motors and we are happy to talk to them,” said Famin when asked by Motorsport.com.
![Alpine A523, technical detail](https://cdn-8.motorsport.com/images/mgl/YN1aEe42/s1000/alpine-a523-technical-details-1.jpg)
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Alpine A523, technical detail
“If they have an offer, we will be happy to resume talks. For the moment it is a bit on standby, and not through our fault, but because the duration of the process is much, much, much longer than expected. The FIA took much longer to respond than initially stated, now the ball passes to F1. If they have an entry [al campionato]we are happy to discuss [un accordo] with Andretti.
“What I said last time is that we had a pre-contract, the pre-contract has expired, so in fact at this moment we have no commitment or legal obligation with them. But we are happy to talk to them and to see what we can do together. If they can enter the grid it will be because they will have demonstrated that they can bring great added value to F1 and that the value of the championship and the teams will not be diluted for this reason”, added the Alpine Team Principal.
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