Just when the Formula 1 driver’s market appeared to be settling down for the winter, news broke on Monday evening that will suddenly create a huge amount of new speculation.
Formula 1 announced that a General Motors-backed application to enter an 11th team has been approved for the 2026 season.
Although Andretti have been preparing for more than a year to join the paddock, it appears as though GM are going to enter a team under the Cadillac name should they receive confirmation that they’ll be racing in F1 in just 15 months.
The work Andretti have done in the United States and at their satellite office just outside of Silverstone in the UK is what the project will be built on.
However, General Motors can now start making much more serious plans to join Formula 1 at a time when interest is growing year-on-year.
Cadillac may already have an advantage over their F1 rivals as they’re not currently limited by the rules on testing for 2026 when the sport introduces wide-sweeping changes to the cars and power units.
They have plenty of work to do and some key decisions to make before heading to whichever race hosts the season opener.
General Motors are building their own power unit, but it won’t be ready for 2026 so they need to enter negotiations with the available partners in the paddock.
Cadillac also don’t have any drivers signed up yet but already some racers without a seat on next year’s grid are taking an interest in the project.
Felipe Drugovich ‘sniffing around’ Cadillac’s proposed 2026 Formula 1 team
A report from The Race has shared more details about how General Motors have approached the prospect of joining the F1 grid thus far.
They will need to begin ramping up efforts to be ready for an extensive amount of pre-season testing, with every team having access to triple the number of track days normally allocated due to the upcoming rule changes.
When it comes to who will race for the team, General Motors have an abundance of drivers they can call upon from other series if they would like to.
Andretti were keen on Colton Herta, but he still doesn’t have enough superlicence points to race in F1.
The likes of Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu and Kevin Magnussen will all lose their race seats at the end of the year.
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While the latter is keen to explore other options outside of F1, Bottas and Zhou have made it clear they would like to make a return to the series.
The report goes on to say that Felipe Drugovich is ‘thought to be sniffing around’ the Cadillac project already.
After two years on the sidelines at Aston Martin, he could finally earn his place on the grid after Peter Windsor described Drugovich as the worst signing in F1 history, following the £600,000 fee the team paid for him.
Windsor suggested that not because Drugovich lacks ability, but because he was never going to get his chance behind Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll within the team.
Who is Aston Martin reserve driver Felipe Drugovich?
Drugovich was previously been described as a ‘special’ driver by his former MP Motorsport boss Paolo Angilella after he went on to win the 2022 Formula 2 title.
The 24-year-old started racing in his native Brazil, winning several karting titles before moving to Europe.
He won the Euroformula Open and Spanish F3 title in 2018 before earning a promotion to the FIA F3 championship.
After a 16th-place finish, he was promoted to F2 with MP Motorsport and won three races during his maiden campaign.
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His second year at that level saw him improve from ninth to eighth in the standings before winning the championship on his third attempt in 2022.
Unfortunately, he’s barely raced since taking up the role of reserve driver at Aston Martin.
A singular Brazilian Stock Car race in 2022 followed by five European Le Mans Series events in 2024 means if Cadillac did want to take a punt on Drugovich, he would need a lot of work to get up to speed.
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