American car manufacturer

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

(GM) is contracted to compete as a

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

constructor under the

Cadillac Cadillac Motor Car Division, or simply Cadillac (), is the luxury vehicle division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Its major markets are the United States, Canada and China; Cadillac models are ...

brand as Cadillac Formula 1 Team, beginning with the season, and is expected to become a power unit manufacturer by the end of the 2020s. GM will collaborate with American motorsports organization

TWG Motorsports TWG Motorsports is a motorsport division of American holding company TWG Global Holdings, LLC. The division's sole responsibility is to operate TWG Global's motorsport teams. The company was established in late 2024 and is based in Chicago, Ill ...

through the latter's British subsidiary, TWG Cadillac Formula 1 Team Ltd. Cadillac will become the first new constructor to join the grid since Haas in 2016. The project has three bases in the United States—in

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

and

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

—and one in the United Kingdom. The engine department will be based in North Carolina.

Background

In January 2023,

(GM) and

Michael Andretti Michael Mario Andretti (born October 5, 1962) is an American former racing driver, and current team owner. Statistically one of the most successful drivers in the history of American open-wheel car racing, Andretti won the 1991 CART champions ...

Andretti Global Andretti Global is an American motorsports organization with teams competing in the IndyCar Series, Indy NXT, Formula E, and joint entries in IMSA and the Australian Supercars Championship. Starting in 2026, Andretti will also operate the Cad ...

announced their intention to enter GM's

brand into the

Formula One World Championship Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one of the wor ...

. The FIA approved their bid, but the

Formula One Group The Formula One Group is a group of companies responsible for the Promotion (marketing), promotion of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA Formula One World Championship, and the exercising of the sport's commercial rights. The ...

vetoed it, explaining that it would reconsider its decision if GM agreed to manufacture F1 engines. Despite the rejection, Andretti continued to build up the team and operations using

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

's wind tunnel in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, which

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited ( ) is a British auto racing, motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team. McLaren is best known a ...

had recently vacated. In November 2024, following extended disputes between Formula One Group's leadership and Michael Andretti, Andretti Global sponsor

TWG Global TWG Global Holdings, LLC is an American multinational conglomerate holding company with headquarters in Chicago and New York City. It was founded by Guggenheim Partners co-founder and CEO Mark Walter. Walter serves as the company's chief exe ...

(

Mark Walter Mark Richard Walter (born January 1, 1960) is an American businessman and the chief executive officer of Guggenheim Partners, a privately held global financial services firm with more than $325 billion in assets under management. Outside invest ...

) announced that it was taking over the operation from the Andretti family. Michael Andretti remained as an advisor, and his father

Mario Mario (; ) is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Ja ...

agreed to serve on the board of directors. The team renamed its British subsidiary from Andretti Racing to Cadillac, and eventually TWG Cadillac Formula 1 Team Ltd. That same month, Formula One tentatively approved Cadillac as a new constructor for the season. The entry received its final approval in March 2025, in time for Cadillac to sign the newest Formula One

Concorde Agreement The Concorde Agreement is a contract between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the Formula One teams and the Formula One Group which dictates the terms by which the teams compete in races, and how the television revenues and p ...

. Cadillac will be F1's first new constructor since Haas in 2016. GM paid an expansion fee of million, over twice as much as originally demanded. In addition, GM announced that it would begin manufacturing engines for the Cadillac team at a later date; until then, the team will race with

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and be ...

engines.

Constructor personnel

In December 2024, Cadillac hired former

Virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...

and

Marussia Marussia Motors ( ) was a Russian sports car company founded in 2007. It was the first Russian company to produce a supercar. It designed, and manufactured prototypes of both the B1 and the B2 sport cars. Marussia was led by former motor racer Ni ...

CEO

Graeme Lowdon Graeme Paul Lowdon (born 23 April 1965) is a British businessman and entrepreneur. He served as chief executive officer of the Virgin and Marussia Formula One teams. Career Originally from Corbridge, Lowdon grew up in Stocksfield. He gained ...

as team principal. Lowdon is overseen by

CEO Dan Towriss. The team has hired several alumni of

Team Enstone "Team Enstone" is the colloquial name for a Formula One team based in Enstone, Oxfordshire, which has won seven Formula One World Championships. Since 1981, the same team has competed under five different identities—most notably Benetton Formul ...

, specifically its

Flavio Briatore Flavio Briatore (; born 12 April 1950) is an Italian businessman, who serves as executive adviser and '' de facto'' team principal of Alpine in Formula One. As the longtime team principal of Team Enstone (Benetton Formula / Renault F1 Team ...

-led incarnation, for senior roles, including Formula One CTO

Pat Symonds Patrick Bruce Reith Symonds (born 11 June 1953) is a British motor racing engineer, who is currently the executive engineering consultant for the Andretti Cadillac F1 program. He was the Chief Technical Officer at Williams Grand Prix Engineer ...

, operations officer Rob White, technical director

Nick Chester Nick Chester (born 22 March 1969) is a motorsport engineer. Early life Chester graduated in engineering from Cambridge University in 1991. Career Chester joined Simtek Research in vehicle simulation, moving to their Formula One entry in 1994 ...

, aerodynamicist Jon Tomlinson, and advisor

Naoki Tokunaga Naoki Tokunaga (徳永直紀, born 1966) is the Japanese former technical director of Renault Sport F1. Career Tokunaga studied in Japan and graduated Chuo University. He was a motorsport engineer at Nissan. In 2000, he started working at Enst ...

. Lowdon said that he intends to hire a driver based on merit, although he "see no reason why an American driver can't be selected on merit". Mario Andretti has stated that the team plans to pair an experienced driver with a younger American driver, who will "most likely be ndretti Global driver

Colton Herta Colton Thomas Herta (born March 30, 2000) is an American auto racing, racing driver who competes in the IndyCar Series, NTT IndyCar Series for Andretti Autosport, Andretti Global with Curb Agajanian Performance Group, Curb Agajanian. He is the yo ...

Power unit program

GM and TWG established GM Performance Power Units LLC (GM PPU) to produce works engines for the Cadillac team, and hired longtime GM engine designer Russ O'Blenes to lead the engine division. In addition,

Joe Saward Jonathan Mark Christopher Saward (born 14 July 1961) is a British Formula One journalist. Life and career Saward was educated at Haileybury College and attained a degree in history at Bedford College, University of London. In 1984 he joined ''A ...

reported that GM was seeking to purchase the intellectual property of Renault's former power unit program. GM PPU plans to produce an F1-ready engine for the 2029 season. Until then, the Cadillac team will use

engines and gearboxes. GM PPU announced that it plans to spend $65–70 million building an engine factory for 300-350 employees, which is expected to open in the first quarter of 2027. It also plans to spend another $75–80 million to start up the factory.

Facilities

The Cadillac team plans to operate four facilities. The organization will be headquartered in a brand-new facility in

Fishers, Indiana Fishers is a city in the Fall Creek Township, Hamilton County, Indiana, Fall Creek and Delaware Township, Hamilton County, Indiana, Delaware townships in Hamilton County, Indiana, Hamilton County, Indiana, United States. As of the 2020 United Sta ...

, a suburb of

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

, which will handle "the bulk of the team's car manufacturing." Andretti Global initially suggested that it would base its F1 and IndyCar operations out of the same building, but the IndyCar operation was ultimately moved to a different facility; F1 rules prohibit multi-team facilities. The race team and chassis designers will operate from a facility in

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The village is about south-southwest of Towcester and northeast of Brackley, both accessed via the A43 road, A43 main ...

, England. GM will build a 204,000-square foot power unit facility near its Charlotte Technical Center in

Concord, North Carolina Concord ( ) is the most populous city in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 105,240 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Concord is the second-most populous city in the Cha ...

. Additional operations will take place in

Warren, Michigan Warren is a city in Macomb County, Michigan, Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Warren borders Detroit to the north, roughly north of downtown Detroit. The population was 139,387 at the ...

, the location of the

General Motors Technical Center The GM Technical Center was inaugurated in 1956 as General Motors's primary design and engineering center, located in Warren, Michigan. In 2000 the center was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and fourteen years later it was d ...

. In addition, the team has signed a long-term agreement with Toyota to rent their Cologne wind tunnel.

Involvement in the 1950s

Several GM marques participated in the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...

when it counted towards the FIA

World Championship of Drivers Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one of the world ...

from

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 ...

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Janu ...

: *

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...

: Gordon Reid entered a

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

-engined Silnes car but failed to qualify. *

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

: Johnny Fedricks entered a Cadillac-engined

Kurtis Kraft Kurtis Kraft was an American designer and builder of race cars. The company built midget cars, quartermidgets, sports cars, sprint cars, Bonneville cars, and USAC Championship cars. It was founded by Frank Kurtis when he built his own mid ...

car but failed to qualify. *

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

: Bill Homeier entered a Cadillac-engined Kurtis Kraft car but failed to qualify.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

As an engine supplier

References

External links

* {{Formula One constructors Formula One entrants American auto racing teams American racecar constructors Cadillac in motorsport