COMMENTARY
Detroit’s biggest automotive players want to get back into Formula One, the global auto racing series. Some of those involved have scores to settle.
General Motors Co. said in early January it was teaming up with the effort of Michael Andretti’s racing team to enter F-1. GM’s efforts would be led by its Cadillac brand.
Mario Andretti, Michael’s father, won the F-1 driver’s championship in 1978. Michael Andretti in the early 1990s didn’t fare as well as his father. Overall, the younger Andretti had a good career as a driver and is a major team owner in the IndyCar series.
Ford Motor Co. more than 20 years ago, owned an F-1 team founded by driving legend Jackie Stewart. At the time, Ford owned the Jaguar luxury car brand. So, the company’s F-1 team carried the Jaguar name.
For Ford, things didn’t work out. The automaker, under financial stress in the early 2000s, got out of F-1. The company bundled Jaguar with Land Rover and sold both to India’s Tata Motors.
Yet, it seems, neither GM nor Ford can stay away.
F-1 attracts a global audience. Part of the attraction is F-1 is supposed to have the most advanced technology in racing. The series has events all over the world.
Both team owner Andretti and automaker Ford have reasons to want to return.
Ford’s press release said it would team up with the Red Bull team in F-1.
“This is the start of a thrilling new chapter in Ford’s motorsports story that began when my great-grandfather won a race that helped launch our company,” Chairman Bill Ford said in the statement. The original Henry Ford won a race in the early 1900s, using the prize money to start Ford Motor.
Like the auto industry generally, F-1 is shifting to electric power.
“Ford’s return to Formula 1 with Red Bull Racing is all about where we are going as a company– increasingly electric, software-defined, modern vehicles and experiences,” CEO Jim Farley said in the statement.
Meanwhile, it’s yet to be determined whether Michael Andretti’s GM-supported F-1 effort will yield a team on the starting grid.
“I feel very strongly that we are suited to be a new team for Formula One and can bring value to the series and our partners, and excitement for the fans,” Michael Andretti said in the early January statement.
Regardless, Detroit can’t stay away. How successful the Detroit automakers succeed remains to be seen.
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