Toto Wolff says the joint venture between Andretti Global and General Motors over a bid to join the FIA Formula 1 World Championship grid is a ‘statement’, and he has slightly changed his stance on whether Michael Andretti’s team is worthy of becoming the sports eleventh team.
Andretti’s initial plans did not gather the support needed to be successful in joining the Formula 1 grid, potentially as early as 2024, but the announcement that they are joining forces with Cadillac has opened more eyes and made the whole idea more feasible.
Wolff, the Team Principal of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, had questioned the initial plans and discussing whether Andretti joining the grid would be beneficial to the sport.
“Andretti is a great name but this is sport, and this is business, and we need to understand what is it that you can provide to the sport,” Wolff is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com last year.
“And if an OEM or a multinational group joins F1 and can demonstrate that they are going to spend X amount of dollars in activating, in marketing; that’s obviously a totally different value proposition for all the other teams.”
Now that Cadillac on board, Wolff says the arrival of a global automotive company into Formula 1 would be a positive, and he now is more okay with the possibility of the Andretti team joining the grid in the upcoming years.
“Cadillac and GM, that’s a statement,” Wolff said. “Certainly, them joining forces with Andretti is definitely a positive.
“It gives it another angle that may or may not be beneficial for Formula 1, but definitely nobody would ever question GM’s or Cadillac’s pedigree in motorsport, and obviously as a global auto company.”