So You're Telling Me There's A Chance? GM Could Reportedly Still Join F1 In '26 After All

The Formula 1 circus is in Las Vegas this weekend, and with one of the series' biggest races came a major piece of news: remember that joint GM/Andretti Global bid to become the 11th team on the F1 grid in 2026?

Yeah, it could still happen.

According to a report from the Associated Press' Jenna Fryer, the bid — which looked to be dead-in-the-water earlier this year — could become a reality thanks to recent restructuring at Andretti Global that saw Michael Andretti stepping away from day-to-day operations of the team.

Fryer reported that new Andretti Global boss Dan Towriss was in Las Vegas this weekend and a decision on whether to welcome them to the grid from F1 and Formula One Management (FOM) could be coming somewhat soon.

A new report suggests that GM could wind up in F1 in 2026 after all. (Getty Images)

This twist is the latest in a tumultuous "will they, won't they" dance between Andretti Global and GM and then Formula 1 and FOM, the latter of which shot down the GM/Andretti bid after it was approved by the FIA.

This led to bipartisan calls from members of Congress to look into why the bid was shut down, despite meeting just about every condition that F1 and FOM threw at them. 

In fact, Fryer reported that the FBI was allegedly on hand as part of a DOJ investigation into the matter.

Now, approval for the 2026 season would mean very limited time for GM and Andretti to hit the grid using a GM-built Cadillac engine. Those would reportedly be coming, but wouldn't be ready until 2028.

So, if they are approved for ‘26, they would likely need to start as a customer team. This would mean using an engine built by Mercedes, Ferrari, Honda, Red Bull/Ford (that doesn’t seem likely, does it?), or newcomer Audi.

It's going to be wild to see how this plays out over the next few months because this is a drastic turn of events.