SILVERSTONE, England (AP) \u2014 Cadillac is naming its first Formula 1 car in honor of 1978 champion Mario Andretti, who calls it the \u201cultimate compliment\u201d ahead of the team\u2019s inaugural race next week at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
F1\u2019s new 11th team announced on Friday its car will be the MAC-26, short for Mario Andretti Cadillac, for the most recent American F1 champion.<\/p>\n
\u201cNaming our first chassis MAC-26 reflects the spirit Mario carried into Formula 1 and the belief that an American team belongs on this stage,\u201d said Dan Towriss, chief executive of Cadillac Formula 1 Team Holdings.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis story embodies the American dream and inspires how we approach building this team every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andretti is an ambassador for the General Motors-backed Cadillac team, whose F1 entry originated with a bid fronted by his son Michael under the Andretti Global name.<\/p>\n
The original bid was rejected by Liberty Media, the commercial rights holder of F1, amid prolonged wrangling. Michael Andretti stepped aside and the entry was restructured with Towriss at the helm and an increased role for GM.<\/p>\n
\u201cRacing has been the joy of my life. It is the ultimate compliment that Cadillac Formula 1 Team sees those years as meaningful and worthy of recording with this honor,\u201d Mario Andretti said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cherish the opportunity that it gives me to have a lasting board with F1 and am genuinely appreciative of everyone who continues to acknowledge my part in racing history.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP auto racing: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/auto-racing<\/p>\n
The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SILVERSTONE, England (AP) \u2014 Cadillac is naming its first Formula 1 car in honor of 1978 champion Mario…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-503639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}