F1 News: GM VP responds to FOM’s rejection of Andretti F1 entry

Jim Campbell, Vice President, Performance And Motorsports For General Motors, met with the Media as well as leaders from Ford And Toyota to discuss a number of topics at Daytona International Speedway today.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Although everyone was gathered to talk about NASCAR and this weekend’s Daytona, the topic of Formula 1 came up.  Campbell was asked:

Did General Motors/Cadillac find F1’s rejection statement about your ability insulting or anything like that? And second part, you can build an engine in F1 by 2026, but can’t because of the regulations?

“Just on the last part of your question, when you register to be a power unit supplier, there is a deadline to do that, and for us, it was last June for 2028. If you wanted to develop an engine sooner, then you would have had to register the previous year for that. So, it’s simply a regulation,” Campbell said.  

“In terms of our application with Andretti (Autosport), we feel great about our application. The FIA studied it against other applicants and then gave our application a vote of confidence and approval. So obviously, the FOM made their statement, and we have asked for a follow-up meeting with FOM, and so we will work through that.

“We do believe between Andretti and Cadillac that we have got the capability of fielding a competitive entry. We are not saying that it is easy, but we do, between our two organizations, have examples in our history of where we have been successful in other motorsports categories, and that is true of Cadillac and Andretti.

“With that said, our joint teams are continuing to develop our car at pace. So, that is where we are at.”

You weren’t insulted at all that they didn’t think you could do it?

“As I said, we believe in the application we submitted and in that application we articulated the abilities of both Andretti as a race team, and Cadillac as a manufacturing and engineering entity. So, we feel confident in the application and are asking for a meeting with FOM,” concluded Campbell.