Monday marked a massive step for American motorsports. But can it be converted to a victory?

Formula One announced that it came to “an agreement in principle with General Motors,” the well-known American manufacturer, to join the grid in 2026. It’ll be the first time more than 10 teams have been on the grid since 2016, and GM already is calling it the Cadillac Formula 1 Team in its news release.

If the application is finalized, GM will have two cars on the grid but will need to be a customer team first, buying an engine from one of the existing original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) while it continues to work towards building its own power unit. The goal is to be a works team by the end of the decade.

There have been American aspects in F1 before. Ford left the sport in 2004 as an engine manufacturer and will return in 2026 with a technical partnership with Red Bull. Haas is the current American team, though with most of its operations in Europe, and there’s not an American driver on the grid after Franco Colapinto replaced Logan Sargeant this past season.

GM and Cadillac, though, are poised to be a true all-American F1 team, between operations largely being in the U.S. and the expressed interest in possibly signing an American driver. The interest in the sport has rapidly grown in this country since the COVID-19 pandemic for a variety of reasons, and given the culture of sport in the United States, GM faces a unique opportunity to seize a market that thrives on national pride in competition.

Can General Motors take F1 fandom to the next level, furthering the stronghold the sport has in America?

A look at F1’s American ties

F1 is no stranger to the U.S.

It has raced at Watkins Glen International (from 1961-1980) and had stints out in Long Beach, California (1976-1983), Detroit (1982-1988) and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (1950-60, 2000-2007). The international motorsport series competed at nine U.S. tracks over the years before leaving the country after the 2007 United States Grand Prix in Indianapolis. But then came Circuit of the Americas, which joined the calendar in 2012 and brought back the U.S. Grand Prix.

Then came Colorado-based Liberty Media, which acquired F1 in 2017. The company modernized F1 and increased its digital presence, opening up what had long been considered a closed-off sport. The Netflix docuseries “Drive to Survive” debuted in 2019 but took off during the COVID-19 pandemic, giving people worldwide a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the rivalries, teams and drivers. As interest grew in the sport, F1 expanded its reach in the U.S., with Miami (2022) and Las Vegas (2023) added to the calendar.

Haas has tried to lean into being ‘America’s Team’ with its liveries, but the fact remains it is largely a European operation. (Alessio Morgese/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

However, as far as a proper American team goes, there have been few in F1’s history. Haas joined in 2016, and it was the first American team since 1986, when the unrelated Haas Lola last competed. Haas does have ties to NASCAR and Kannapolis, North Carolina, but the F1 racing operation is largely over in Europe. It is a global approach, and Haas does still lean into its American identity, such as the eagle on the side of the car during the 2024 U.S. Grand Prix.

But it does raise questions about how American the team is.

“We want to be the American global team,” former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner once told The Athletic. “You need to be proud of your identity, but not just use that one as this is what makes us great, because you could fail as well. If you do bad, you don’t make America proud.”

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Then there’s the case of the drivers. The most recent American on the F1 grid was Sargeant, who scored one point during his 36 grands prix with Williams, and there’s been an extensive history of Americans competing in F1 dating back to the 1950s — the likes of Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, Mario Andretti, and Scott Speed.

Mario Andretti remains the winningest American F1 driver ever. (Tony Duffy/Allsport via Getty Images)

Making an international name

Of course, one thing Haas hasn’t done to capture American fans’ imagination is win in F1. In 188 F1 races across nine seasons, Haas has zero podiums and just 299 total points, never finishing higher than fifth in the constructors championship.

Will General Motors fare any better? The company has extensive motorsports success, including 1,199 NASCAR Cup Series victories with Buick, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and Pontiac. Chevrolet has won nearly two-and-a-half times as many NASCAR manufacturer’s titles as Ford, with 43, and it has won 13 Indianapolis 500s.

But when it comes to international motorsports, GM hasn’t been a big player outside of nine class victories at Le Mans. But now, racing in F1 under the Cadillac brand, it has the potential and a leg up on rival Ford, who will be with Red Bull as a technical partner but not as a team owner. There will likely be pressure on GM to produce results relatively quickly.

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From an operational standpoint, the project has continued hiring personnel across different departments, even after the Andretti bid was initially rejected. The operations, though, aren’t all centered in one location. Cadillac F1 will operate in Silverstone, England; Fishers, Indiana; Warren, Michigan; and Charlotte, North Carolina.

The England base isn’t a surprise, as it keeps the team within the heart of the F1 world and has been up and running for months. However, the other locations are in the different power hubs of American motorsports. GM has a technical center in Warren and Charlotte, and Andretti plans to use Fishers as the global HQ.

Then there’s the drivers, which could further the all-American team appeal.

During the initial bid process, there was an expressed desire to have at least one American driver. However, there has been no news on drivers — not just names but also whether GM would want two rookies, two veterans or a mix. This could open the door to the likes of Zhou Guanyu, Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen or Colapinto, who won’t have a full-time seat next year. Or could American drivers like Sargeant, Formula 2’s Jak Crawford or IndyCar’s Colton Herta (depending on the superlicense) be in the mix? There’s a wealth of talent to pull from across different series.

Four years after the initial “Drive to Survive” boom, GM and Cadillac will give U.S. fans a team they can identify with, particularly if an American driver is signed and success follows. There’s an opportunity to seize within the American market, and General Motors might just accomplish the feat.

Italians rally around Ferrari. Will GM become America’s Team?

(Photo: Clive Rose – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images; Design: Dan Goldfarb/The Athletic)

Colorado football stars Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter both had impressive performances Friday in the Buffaloes’ rout of Oklahoma State.

Sanders threw five touchdowns in the 52-0 win over the Cowboys, and Hunter caught 10 passes for 116 yards in Colorado’s regular-season finale. The two-way star also intercepted one of Oklahoma State quarterback Maealiuaki Smith’s passes. 

Before the game, Shedeur and his brother and teammate, Shilo Sanders, were escorted onto the Buffaloes’ home field by their father, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders. 

Shedeur is widely projected to be one of the first players selected in next year’s NFL Draft. Hunter, a Heisman Trophy contender, is also likely to be a first-round draft selection. 

Shedeur and Hunter’s NFL prospects have sparked some speculation about whether the star players would skip Colorado’s yet-to-be determined bowl game. But the Buffaloes’ signal-caller says he’ll play in the bowl game.

“It’s a team thing,” Sanders said Friday. “If me and T and a couple of other players aren’t out there, the Buffs aren’t going to look the same. We understand the pieces we are to the team, the leaders we are overall and the amount of players that would sit out if we weren’t out there doing it.”

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Colorado needs help Saturday to make it to the Big 12 title game. If the Buffs don’t get it, they will be a good bet to make the Holiday Bowl Dec. 27 or the Alamo Bowl Dec. 28. It will be Colorado’s first bowl game in a non-COVID season since 2016. The Buffs haven’t won a bowl game since 2004.

LaJohntay Wester (10) of the Colorado Buffaloes celebrates with Travis Hunter (12) and Shedeur Sanders (2) after his first quarter touchdown against the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Folsom Field Nov. 29, 2024, in Boulder, Color. (Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)

Bowl games have declined in popularity and importance since the introduction of the College Football Playoff, and the system is expanding from four to 12 teams this year. 

Though many top players choose to skip the second-tier bowl games, coach Sanders said the Buffs will all show up and play. 

“Our kids are going to play in our bowl game because that’s what we signed up to do,” the Pro Football Hall of Famer said. “We’re going to finish. We’re not going to tap out because that throws off the structure of next season.”

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders waves to the crowd before a game against North Dakota State Aug. 29, 2024, in Boulder, Colo.  (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Sanders played at Florida State before making it to the NFL. Last season, the Seminoles got snubbed from the four-team playoff despite their undefeated record. A number of players opted out of the Orange Bowl, and the Seminoles lost 63-3 to Georgia. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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In Jared Porter’s first public comments since being fired as New York Mets general manager nearly four years ago, he called his actions inappropriate and said the organization made the best decision.

In January 2021, the Mets fired Porter within nine hours of an ESPN report that revealed he had sent dozens of inappropriate text messages to a female journalist.

“It was an inappropriate relationship for a lot of reasons,” Porter said while appearing on the podcast “Baseball Isn’t Boring.”

“I put myself in that situation,” he continued. “I made the decision to send the text message that I sent. And I certainly shouldn’t have done it.”

Porter sent the texts to a journalist in 2016, when he worked for the Chicago Cubs. According to ESPN’s initial report, after a brief exchange, the texts from Porter included lewd and explicit photos even as they went unanswered for weeks. In total, Porter sent 62 messages between answers over three weeks before the journalist requested him to stop. She ultimately left journalism, in part because of the harassment.

After he was fired, Porter said he went to an inpatient center in a behavioral healthcare facility in Arizona called The Meadows for a week. He then transferred to an outpatient center and went there five days a week for eight weeks. He said he lacked awareness and didn’t have boundaries. Porter said, “It took a major incident like this to kind of wake me up.” Porter said that he still sees a therapist and has attended mental wellness retreat centers with his wife.

Porter’s tenure with the Mets lasted just 37 days. With so much business conducted over video calls due to the COVID-19 pandemic at the time, Porter said he never saw his office at Citi Field or even met Mets owner Steve Cohen in person.

“They had to make the best decision for the New York Mets when the article came out, and I knew they would,” Porter said. “I hold zero ill will toward them whatsoever. I do think they made the best decision for the Mets. It’s unfortunate that I put myself and put them in that situation.”

(Photo: Rob Schumacher / USA Today)