F1 News
No entry into F1, yet Andretti build F1 car for 2024: here's why!
- Ludo van Denderen
The countdown has really started: in exactly 31 days, the Bahrain Grand Prix will be on the calendar. That will be the first serious measuring moment for the ten teams with their new cars. Eleven teams will soon have a new car ready for the 2024 season, as Andretti are also working on a car. It will never run a Grand Prix, as the Americans do not (yet) have permission from Formula 1 to join the F1 grid.
Why are Andretti building an F1 car for the 2024 season anyway? The team is preparing to get the green light from Formula 1 to enter the sport. Team owner Michael Andretti secretly hopes to be on the grid as early as 2025. Building a car at the very last minute is obviously impossible. That is why the team are already working on their own car, which could be updated before 2025.
Andretti teaches team members to work together
Moreover, Andretti has recently recruited dozens of people for the F1 project. By letting them work on a real F1 car, they learn about each other's qualities and how to work together in this team. Andretti has plucked people away from the likes of Red Bull Racing and Ferrari, but they have also brought in workers who were recently in school.
The first model of the Andretti Global F1 car has already been tested in the wind tunnel. Andretti is doing this in the wind tunnel of WEC team Toyota in Cologne, Germany, which, until recently, McLaren used. General Motors, who wants to supply a power unit to Andretti from 2028, has started developing the PU in the United States.