Andretti Global and Cadillac's racing arm say they "strongly disagree" with Formula 1 management's assessment and rejection of the pair's formal application for entry into the pinnacle of motorsports for 2025 or 2026 that F1 released Wednesday.

Five hours after F1 issued its thorough, three-page rebuke of Andretti Cadillac's efforts, which received FIA approval in October and included General Motors' promise to build and run F1 engines starting in 2028, the hopeful F1 team says its "work continues at pace," despite the rejection.

"Andretti Cadillac has reviewed the information Formula 1 Management Limited has shared and strongly disagree with its contents. Andretti and Cadillac are two successful global motorsports organizations committed to placing a genuine American works team in F1, competing alongside the world's best," the pair said in their Wednesday afternoon statement. "We are proud of the significant progress we have already made on developing a highly competitive car and power unit with an experienced team behind it, and our work continues at pace.

"Andretti Cadillac would also like to acknowledge and thank the fans who have expressed their support."

In hopes of joining the F1 grid in the near future, after having taken part in the FIA's Expression of Interest process this spring and being the only finalist selected by the governing body to have its application reviewed by FOM, Andretti Global had already hired 120 people working out of a satellite shop in the U.K., including 50 GM engineers, a technical director and leaders on the aerodynamics and design side. Having attracted recent employees from Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren, the team had already built a 2023 model car at 60% scale and had run it in Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne Germany, according to a report this week from The Athletic.

The team's leadership had planned to build a full-size car later this year to use in homologation testing.

Andretti Global hits F1 roadblock: Series rejects team's bid to join in '25 or '26, leaves door open for future

Early last year, GM announced its formal design and manufacturing support for Andretti's project, but came short of pledging to build engines as part of the deal, meaning Andretti would've had to begin a 2025 or 2026 F1 debut with a customer engine deal -- likely with Alpine. Late last year, GM upped the ante and promised to build F1 engines starting in 2028 -- and strongly rebuked any idea that they would be willing to join the sport without Andretti's simultaneous admission.

Andretti Global has long received public and private pushback from F1 officials and the majority active teams' leaders, with objections that ranged from the losses teams believed they'd incur if an 11th team was admitted to the grid, to the fact that F1 simply didn't think a new team would be additive enough to the larger landscape of the sport to rock the current boat that's been practically been printing money of late.

In its Wednesday morning statement, F1 officials rebuked an Andretti Global project they viewed as ill-equipped to be competitive at the outset and lacking in value to the sport's current stakeholders. Joining in 2025, the statement claimed, was too tall a task for a brand-new team, who would have to building two completely different cars in a two-year span, given F1's new technical regulations coming for the start of 2026. In lacking GM's new engine program for at least its first two years in the sport, F1 saw Andretti Global as jumping into a precarious position with what would soon be a rival manufacturer who wouldn't be incentivized to do anything to help the team beyond the minimum.

Without the enticement of GM at the time of their hopeful debut, F1 reasoned, "our research indicates that F1 would bring value to the Andretti brand rather than the other way around."

Though F1's collective agreement with teams and the FIA allows for up to 12 two-car teams on the grid, the series claimed the addition of an 11th "would place an operational burden on race promoters, would subject some of them to significant costs, and would reduce the technical, operational and commercial spaces of the other competitors."

Though F1 noted it would be willing to revisit Andretti Cadillac's bid down the road when it would be simultaneously green-lighting or rejecting a new power unit manufacturer simultaneously, the racing series largely backed up what it's said for nearly two years, even as it's seemingly moved the goalposts on Michael Andretti and his financial backers.

"Our assessment process has established that the presence of an 11th team would not, in and of itself, provide value to the (F1) championship," the series said Wednesday of an Andretti Global team that already competes in IndyCar, IMSA, Formula E, Extreme E and V8 Supercars, among others. "Formula 1, as the pinnacle of world motorsport, represents a unique technical challenge to constructors of a nature that the Applicant has not faced in any other formula or discipline in which it has previously competed.

"We do not believe that the Applicant would be a competitive participant."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Andretti Cadillac 'strongly disagrees' with F1 rejection: 'Work continues at pace'