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Next year will be a major season for Formula 1 with new regulations, new engines, and — perhaps the biggest of all — new teams as Audi takes over Sauber and Cadillac becomes the 11th team on the grid.

The news officially broke this week that US auto giant GM will join the series with its Cadillac brand, and will even become a full works team in 2028 when a Cadillac designed and built power unit gets plunked in the back of their cars.

However, this means that for two seasons, Cadillac will need to be a customer team. That means they’ll have to buy their power units from another manufacturer. But who?

Well, they’ve got no shortage of options. Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull (with the help of GM rival Ford), Honda, and Audi will all be building engines come 2026 (Alpine is a current engine supplier but will move to using Mercedes engines in 2026).

Well, the rumblings have been that they hope to strike a deal to use Ferrari engines for two seasons, and racing legend Mario Andretti — a director on the team’s board — confirmed that this is what they hope will be the case.

“That’s what we’re talking about,” the 1978 F1 champ (which was won with Lotus, but he did drive for Ferrari during his F1 career) said in an interview with NBC News. “That’s not definite yet, but that’s the objective. And that’s the preference.”

Racing legend Mario Andretti says that the new Cadillac F1 team hopes to use Ferrari engines for its first two seasons. (Photo by Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

This is a big decision for the team. Obviously, the engine is an important part of the car and you want to get the most powerful, reliable one you can get. Of course, with new regulations coming in 2026, you probably want to go with the manufacturer with the best batting average over the decades, and that’s likely Ferrari.

Furthermore, the power unit’s design has an impact on the design of the car, specifically how it’s packaged at the rear of the car. I’m sure that’s been taken into consideration as the GM/Cadillac outfit are known to have been working on a car for 2026 and Ferrari’s power units would be most in line with the direction they want to go with their design. 

Right now, Ferrari supplies engines to Sauber — who will begin using Audi engines in 2026 — and Haas.