LONG BEACH, Calif. – Andretti Cadillac’s hopes of finally joining the Formula 1 grid after well over two years of running into – and seemingly clearing – hurdle after hurdle set by Formula One Management all boil down to these next 18 months, according to Mario Andretti.

As executives of Liberty Media (F1’s commercial rights holders), series team principals and the FIA ramp up negotiations to craft the sides’ next Concorde Agreement to govern the sport from 2026-2030, reports have surfaced recently noting that the former two sides may be making a push to cap the F1 grid at 10 two-car teams moving forward – a trim from the 12 teams that the current agreement allows for.

Such a move would close off any ability for Andretti Cadillac to join F1 without buying a team, at a time when each franchise seemingly isn’t for sale and recent minority stake sales have hinted at mid-field team valuations at nearly $1 billion.

Under the current Concorde Agreement, Andretti Cadillac – or any prospective team – would have to pay a $200 million anti-dilution fee that would be split among the 10 current teams to make up for their cut of prize money shrinking. Since Andretti’s quest began to join the grid as an expansion franchise over two years ago, F1 executives and teams alike had long implored that that fee should jump up to as high as $600 million for the new agreement – to both reflect growing team valuations as well as F1’s revenue growth and just how much they’d be losing with the addition of an 11^th team.

In October, the FIA announced Andretti Cadillac had been the only entity to get its stamp of approval from its rigorous, months-long Expression of Interests review process, only for FOM to thoroughly reject Andretti’s bid to join the grid in 2025 or 2026 under its own review process. They did, though, leave the door open for Andretti to join in 2028 once General Motors said it’s powerplants could be ready to supply Andretti’s bid.

Mario Andretti, though, says such a wait is out of the question, so to be able to counteract any changes to the next Concorde Agreement that might cost the team’s backers an additional $400 million to join – or ban them altogether, unless they find a way to buy a current franchise.

From January: F1 rejects Andretti Global's bid to join in '25 or '26, leaves door open for future

“The point is, right now, the Concorde Agreement that’s in place, that’s the valid one. They want to come up with a different one after the end of 2025, but we started this process over two years ago, and we’re going under the current Concorde Agreement,” Andretti told a small group of reporters, noting that Andretti Cadillac executives are of the belief that joining in 2026 would still be done under the 2025 rules. “We didn’t build, we didn’t do everything, we didn’t invest to be here in 2030.

“The objective was to be on the grid in 2024 when we started. Then it’s 2025, and now it’s 2026. But this has got to happen. We’ve invested knowing that we’re going by the book, and I don’t want to hear about the new one. Throw everything you want around, but that’s a different story. We’re going by what’s in place now.”

Last week, Michael and Mario Andretti, as well as Andretti Global co-owner Dan Towriss and a host of other team personnel were on-hand at Silverstone Park in the U.K. to mark the grand-opening of the team’s new 48,000 square-foot shop that will house the work on its F1 project. During that same trip across the pond, Andretti executives met with members of FOM in what the elder Andretti noted Friday was the sides’ first sit-down since the latter’s rejection of Andretti’s bid in late-January where FOM said it didn’t believe the Andretti team “would be a competitive participant”, adding that they questioned Andretti officials’ “understanding of the scope of the challenge involved.”

“While the Andretti name carries some recognition for F1 teams, our research indicates that F1 would bring value to the Andretti brand, rather than the other way around,” FOM’s letter to Andretti read. “We do not believe that the Applicant has shown that it would add value to the Championship. We conclude that the Applicant’s application to participate in the Championship should not be successful.”

Mario said Friday that another meeting between the sides is scheduled for the weekend of next month’s Miami Grand Prix.

Insider: Michael Andretti calls F1 teams 'greedy' for resisting growth; is he right?

“Everyone has been totally respectful and everything (to me),” he noted. The sticking point though, he hinted, is his son’s relationship with FOM – namely its CEO Stefano Domenicali. “That’s the other part. I don’t know, but I don’t have any complaints in that respect. I’ve never been disrespected as a person, face-to-face, but it’s been at a distance, and I don’t think we deserve that,” the elder Andretti said. “I still don’t know what the reasons are because, let’s be reasonable. We’re all racers. We all are professionals. We’re trying to advance the cause for all of us.”

But as those meetings continue, it continues to be tough for Mario to shake the “offense” of how Andretti Global and his family name were dragged through the mud in FOM’s rejection message.

“I was offended. I don’t think we deserved that, to be honest with you. All they have to do is look back, and we didn’t just talk about, ‘We’re going to do this and that.’ We’re doing it, and it shows proper commitment. What else do you want?” Andretti said. “It’s a big investment in the series, and you’d think they’d welcome that. Even the series is more valuable with 11 teams than 10, so I don’t know. Tell us what is really wrong.

“We’re trying to say, ‘We’ll do whatever you ask of us. We know the Concorde Agreement and so forth, but we’ll do whatever is there. If you think of something, tell us.’ But they haven’t told us yet, except for some excuses like, ‘Oh we don’t want you coming in. We don’t want to be embarrassed.’ But we don’t want to embarrass ourselves either, and the fact is, General Motors has made it so clear that they’re excited about this project. They have a long-term commitment, and I don’t know what else we can do.”

Additionally, Mario said he continues to be incensed by FOM’s private push to persuade GM to join the series as an engine manufacturer without Andretti’s addition. Together, it all seemingly makes for a level of back-stabbing and general disrespect he can’t wrap his head around as the most famous American name in the sport’s history.

“That’s another offensive statement. How are you going to take them? We’re the ones that worked it out, and GM has said it over and over: ‘Andretti or nothing’,” Andretti said. “And then they still tried to take it. There’s an undercurrent there that I don’t understand quite honestly. But if they want blood, well I’m ready.”

Andretti pains, too, for his son Michael, who spent just part of one full season in the sport as a driver and has worked for years off-and-on to bring the Andretti name back.

“There won’t be happy times until it’s happy times. We’re just waiting until we can celebrate a little bit, but we’re moving forward. The process is tough enough to deal with and to have some of these other issues, so just let us get going,” the elder Andretti said. “We have some really key people waiting, because we can’t give (them) a contract until we have something (approved). But there’s so many people that really want to join this, which actually to us is revealing.

"Michael, he's got me working like crazy, and normally, I'd say, 'I don't need a job.' But I'll go in the fire with him. We just want to have some reason here."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Mario Andretti 'offended' by F1 rejection: 'I still don't know what the reasons are'