GM Premium Brand to Field 11th Team in F1
General Motors is stepping-up to the highly technical and competitive Formula 1 racing series with a newly created Cadillac Formula 1 team. In partnership with TWG Global, General Motors will develop a bespoke F1 power unit that is projected to power the hybrid open wheel car with an estimated 850-1,000 horsepower. There are currently 10 teams in Formula 1 with two cars per team. The Cadillac Formula 1 team will be the first new team entering the series since 2016, when the Haas F1 Team was the first American team to complete since 1986. Cadillac has enlisted veteran racer Mario Andretti to serve as director of the team’s board.
The timeline for its entry as a full-works team is by the end of the decade. “Full works” means between 2026 and at some point in the following years, General Motors will be using a chassis, an engine they will develop themselves (a hybrid power plant including the battery and regeneration system), and all other piecesthat has been previiously purchased from other approved manufacturers. It has not been announced what power unit the Cadillac F1 team will use at the beginning in 2026 racing season, but speculation is the team will use a Ferrari powerplant, which would make it the fourth team running that engine.
In preparation for its entry, Cadillac Formula 1 has been hiring an experienced team for aerodynamics, chassis and component development, software and vehicle dynamics simulation. The team has operations in Fishers, Indiana; Charlotte, North Carolina; Warren, Michigan; and Silverstone, England.
The Team Is in Place
TWG Global is a diversified investment company with interests in financial services; renewables; art; eco-tourism; agriculture; sports; media and entertainment. It is these last two that describes the Formula 1 race series, as while it is a sport, it is truly media and entertainment. In 2024 the series had 24 races in 21 countries across five continents. Television viewership is estimated to be between 60-70 million per race. At-track spectators total more than 100,000+ for a race weekend.
Drivers have not been announced or what sponsorship the cars will carry. The sponsorship is a serious consideration. It costs somewhere around $15 million per car, with the replacements needed due to crashes adding to that amount. But running the car is the smallest part of the budget as team transportation and other costs come to another $135 million per season. This latter cost is capped so as to even the playing field between the better-to-lesser funded teams.
General Motors, through its divisions, has decades of racing history in series such as NASCAR, IMSA, NHRA, IndyCar, Formula E and many others, all the way down to private citizens running GM cars and trucks on their local tracks. TWG Global brings experience in owning race teams through their ownership of Andretti Global, Wayne Taylor Racing, and Spire Motorsports. To tie-in the American connection Mario Andretti, the last American F1 Champion, will serve as the director of the team’s board.
For those not familiar with the closed nature of Formula 1, there has been serious push-back from the existing 10 teams to not allow an 11th team into the series. This was a combination of not wanting to expand, as many thought 22 cars is too many, but mostly because it means the teams would be receiving less end-of-season payout as the pool of money would be diluted.
Clean Fleet Report is fully on-board with General Motors entering Formula 1, and is glad the Formula One Management see this as a positive step for this worldwide racing series.
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Story by John Faulkner. Photo by General Motors.