F1's invitation for in-person meeting with Andretti Cadillac went to a spam email folder

Formula One's invitation to Andretti Cadillac for an in-person meeting about its application to join the motorsports series was sent via email and landed in a spam folder, which is why Michael Andretti and General Motors representatives never answered the request.

The junk email revelation came Friday as Andretti Global sought to clarify two points in the sharply critical document F1 released earlier this week in rejecting the Andretti Cadillac application.

F1 said it had contacted the Andretti camp on Dec. 12 “extending an invitation to an in-person meeting at our offices in order for the applicant to present its application, but the applicant did not take us up on this offer.”

The invitation was news to the Andretti camp. Its IT team later discovered the request in a search of the email system; the email was not from F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, but from a staff member of the series.

“We were not aware that the offer of a meeting had been extended and would not decline a meeting with Formula One Management. An in-person meeting to discuss commercial matters would be and remains of paramount importance to Andretti Cadillac,” the team said. “We welcome the opportunity to meet with Formula One Management and have written to them confirming our interest.”

Andretti's formal bid to expand the F1 grid from 10 teams to 11 began in 2022 and has been met with cold indifference from most of the current teams as well as F1. In turning down the application, F1 said the team could not prepare a competitive car for the 2025 season, as well as a second car built under upcoming 2026 regulations. It said Andretti and General Motors could not handle such a massive undertaking and actually be competitive on the track.

“The fact that the applicant proposes to do so gives us reason to question their understanding of the scope of the challenge involved,” F1 said.

Andretti countered Friday that although the FIA approved its application to compete in 2025 or 2026, the organization had been targeting 2026 for launch as the process plodded along. Andretti has already built a car around the 2024 regulations that it has taken to wind tunnel testing, but only because the full specs on the 2026 car