Mario Andretti maintains his belief that “personal” factors were at play before Cadillac’s acceptance into F1, but Michael Andretti’s absence will not prove a blow.
Ex-McLaren driver Michael Andretti first attempted to get his team onto the F1 grid via a Sauber takeover, but when that did not come to fruition, focus turned to putting a new, 11th team onto the F1 grid as Andretti Global partnered with General Motors brand Cadillac.
Mario Andretti suspects ‘personal’ issues after Cadillac F1 breakthrough
The FIA said yes, but Formula One Management said no. However, the announcement that Michael Andretti had given up his responsibilities of the day-to-day running of Andretti Global was followed not long after by news that Cadillac had been accepted as an 11th F1 team, to join the grid from 2026.
Michael’s father Mario – the 1978 Formula 1 World Champion – will be on the board of directors for the Cadillac F1 programme and remains somewhat in the dark as to why there was suddenly a breakthrough, though suspects some “personal” issues were at play.
“I don’t know if there’s one thing that all of a sudden brought the thing to fruition. There seemed to be some personal things there that personally, I still do not understand. But it seemed like it came down to that,” Mario told Motorsport.com.
“If that was the case, you could see that Michael decided to step aside – I think he was thinking of that anyway, but then you’d have to ask him that.
“The fact is that it all came together. We can totally analyse the thing until the cows come home, but there were so many things that were not totally clear.
“Again, I wish I could give you a detail that: ‘Yes, if you do this, this, and that and the other.’ But it just all of a sudden started to come together and there were other things that were going on in the background that might have made a difference. But the fact that it’s there now, that’s all I’d like to think about and talk about quite honestly.”
However, Mario does not believe the absence of Michael is going to inflict any lasting impacts upon the Cadillac F1 team.
Asked if it is a bittersweet feeling considering that Michael is not along for the ride, Mario replied: “Yeah, but you know what? There’s a celebration here with him as well.
“There’s no big issues that I see among the group here that would linger or anything else because, I guarantee ultimately it wasn’t just [about] Michael. It’s not that simple.
“There were a lot of things going on, but it happened. It may have made it look like that was the key factor; but it wasn’t.
“One way or another, he might’ve stepped aside a little bit more about the day-to-day situation with them [anyway], so we’re not losing a beat anywhere by going forward here.”
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In May this year, Mario had opened up on a conversation with Formula 1 president Stefano Domenicali and Greg Maffei – the departing CEO of Formula 1’s commercial rights holder Liberty Media – at the Miami Grand Prix, in which Mario said Maffei had informed him of his personal mission to keep Michael out of Formula 1.
Speaking to NBC News, Mario explained how he had been talking to Domenicali about his visit to Washington, upon invitation, as US Congress got involved with F1’s rejection of Andretti-Cadillac, at which point Maffei apparently had his say.
“I was asked to go there,” said Mario.
“And just as I was trying to explain that to Stefano, Greg Maffei, Mr. Maffei, broke in the conversation and he said: ‘Mario, I want to tell you that I will do everything in my power to see that Michael never enters Formula 1’.
“I could not believe that.
“That one really floored me. … We’re talking about business. I didn’t know it was something so personal. That was really — oh, my goodness. I could not believe it. It was just like a bullet through my heart.”
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