FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is adamant that Andretti will have a power unit supplier should FOM accept their entry into Formula 1, for the 2025 season.
The governing body recently approved Andretti’s proposal to become an 11th team in F1, although it’s the FOM who will have the final say over whether the Americans can join or not.
Should the FOM accept Andretti onto the grid, then the side are targeting to bring Cadillac – a division of General Motors – into F1 with them.
In the future, the plan is for General Motors to supply Andretti with power units; however, this simply isn’t possible with such minimal time.
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As a result, Andretti will need a supplier, something which was expected to be Renault until a pre-contract with the French manufacturer lapsed.
Talks are yet to resume, although Renault would be open to future conversations reportedly with Andretti.
General Motors developing a power unit for the future is clearly very important in the FIA’s opinion, as Ben Sulayem is “demanding” that they supply Andretti in the future.
However, Ben Sulayem recognises this won’t happen for a while.
“We are demanding that and we will see that,” Ben Sulayem told selected media, including Motorsport.com.
“But engines are not built in four or five years.
“At the beginning, Andretti will have to agree on one of two engines.”
Andretti won’t be left without an engine supplier should they join the grid in 2025/2026, according to Appendix 6 of F1’s Sporting Regulations.
Under this regulation, Andretti can request engines from one of the manufacturers supplying the least amount of teams.
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For 2026 when the new power units are introduced, this will leave Andretti to choose between Alpine or Honda, with Ben Sulayem stressing that the two manufacturers cannot say no.
“It works that, with the rules, nobody can say no to them,” Ben Sulayem said.
“If all the teams say no, then the FIA has the power to go on and say, the least two [engine manufacturers] being used, then we put them in a draw, and we take one.
“It’s not a secret, and I’m sure it is either Alpine or Honda, and one of them would win because that is the rules.”