► Cadillac’s journey into F1
► Dates from 2023
► How it unfolded
General Motors is the latest major manufacturer to join Formula 1, but it’s been a tortuous journey. There are still twists and turns to be navigated before the ‘agreement in principle’ translates into the Cadillac-branded operation becoming first new team in a decade in 2026, but given the door has previously been slammed shut on an 11th this is a seismic shift. So what’s changed?
Given the byzantine nature of the process, the answer is both a lot, and very little. The team applied for an entry when the application process for newcomers was opened by FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem in January 2023, a unilateral decision against the wishes of F1 itself. The FIA is the regulator and F1 in this sense the commercial rights holder Liberty Media, which was concerned about the financial implications of adding an 11th team. The FIA approved the entry under the ‘Andretti Formula Racing’ name in September last year, but F1 rejected it for manifold reasons including the fact it wouldn’t be competitive or add value.
The name change is significant. The project was created Andretti Global, headed by Michael Andretti, one of Indycar racing’s most successful drivers/team bosses and the son of legendary 1978 world champion Mario. It brought General Motors, using its Cadillac brand, on board to bolster its candidacy, but it wasn’t until Andretti moved into a purely advisory role that the entry was approved. When it was, there was no mention of Andretti, with F1 referring to it as GM/Cadillac.
Despite the identity change, this is exactly the same outfit now presented as a GM team run by a company called TWG, headed by CEO Dan Towriss. TWG owns Andretti Global, which will design, build and race the cars. GM is now in control, but it’s a joint venture even though the only obvious Andretti connection is Mario’s place on the board. GM has referred to the entry as Cadillac Formula 1.
There’s now the small matter of finalising the fee GM must pay to enter, which will rise from the current $200 million to a potential $450m or perhaps even more. This is an anti-dilution fee, shared between the existing 10 teams to offset the impact of F1’s prize fund being split 11, rather than 10, ways. The amount will be formalised in the new commercial terms, the famous Concorde Agreement, which kicks in for 2026. The position of the teams is summed up by Red Bull team principal Christian Horner’s ‘we’d have absolutely no problem with seeing GM coming in, but we’re not paying for it’.
Setting aside the political machinations, GM must climb a mountain for its team to be competitive. Top teams employ 1000-plus people in state-of-the-art facilities and a base of expertise built up over decades. GM’s advantage is despite the uncertainty, Andretti pressed on with building up its staff and facilities in the expectation F1 would relent and give it the green light. A significant factor was the US Department of Justice anti-trust investigation opened in August, but which can now be parked. The team always expected the threat of this to result in F1 letting it in.
GM/Cadillac has recruited shrewdly, appointing Graeme Lowdon, sporting director of the Virgin team that raced in F1 under several names from 2010-2015, as team principal. It has also brought in three of the key players in the Benetton/Renault F1 team’s championship successes in operations director Rob White, executive engineering consultant Pat Symonds and technical director Nick Chester. In total, GM has 280 people working full time, mainly on design and development in its Silverstone facility. That number will swell over the next year with the establishment of the race team and other key departments.
GM has achieved what once seemed impossible by getting on the grid. But now the hard work begins.