Cadillac Will Officially Join F1 In 2026

The once-locked door to the world’s biggest motorsport is now ajar. A loud, historic and very rich American will finally join the party. Formula 1’s management group, FOM, confirmed last night that General Motors’ application to join the grid in 2026 is moving forward with approval from both itself and the FIA. This marks the first time a wholly new team has been permitted to join the sport since Haas in 2016 and a significant change in tone since January this year when the bid was rejected in its initial form under the Andretti Global branding.

The bid is a partnership between General Motors and TWG Global, a private equity firm owned by billionaire and Guggenheim Partners CEO Mark Walter. TWG’s motorsport division at present owns Andretti’s Indycar operations as well as Wayne Taylor Racing’s IMSA outfit and Spire Motorsport’s NASCAR team. Walter also co-owns the LA Dodgers and Chelsea FC.

In an official press release, F1 announced that “Formula 1 has maintained a dialogue with General Motors, and its partners at TWG Global, regarding the viability of an entry following the commercial assessment and decision made by Formula 1 in January 2024. For this year, they have achieved operational milestones and made clear their commitment to brand the eleventh team GM/Cadillac, and that GM will enter as an engine supplier at a later time.”

After Michael Andretti, 62, stepped down earlier this year, the bid’s new helmsman is Dan Towriss, CEO of TWG Global’s motorsports businesses. Towriss was on site last weekend in Vegas where rumours of the bid’s approval first made waves among F1 media and his ability to secure liquid financial backing has been a key factor. The BBC reports that the group will pay a monumental anti-dilution fee of $450m (£358m) to secure the entry which will be evenly distributed among each of the 10 current teams. It seems that, predictably, this sizeable up-front cash payment successfully quelled the concerns of the other 10 teams and their various backers.

Approval of the entry hinged on the full involvement of General Motors and its ambition to become a full works team by the end of the decade, meaning that both its chassis and power unit will be designed in-house. The chassis will be Cadillac-branded, akin to GM’s Le Mans team. With F1’s increasing American audience and the establishment of the Las Vegas Grand Prix as a flagship event on the calendar, a works GM team only strengthens its effort to capitalise on a viewing audience that at present still opts to watch more NASCAR than open-wheel formats. GM’s President Mark Reuss noted the significance of the opportunity in the context of the value to GM’s road car sales, stating “This is a global stage for us to demonstrate GM’s engineering expertise and technology leadership at an entirely new level.”

The 2026 regulation cycle will also see General Motors’ oldest rival, Ford, stick its badge on Red Bull’s powertrain. Audi too will complete its effort to become a full works outfit in place of Sauber while Honda is switching exclusively to supply Adrian Newey Grand Prix Aston Martin with its hybrid powertrain. The new era sees the sport adopt a 50:50 ratio between ICE power and electric systems as well as active aerodynamics which offers the brands, in theory, a stage to show off technologies that could work their way to read cars in the same way that F1’s early adoption of KERS in 2009 preceded its standardisation among new hybrid cars.

A large recruitment effort has continued throughout this year both at Andretti’s new Silverstone base and its sites in North Carolina and Indiana with veteran names like Pat Symonds already on board. Mario Andretti, 84, and F1’s last American champion, will remain involved as an advisory director.

With recruitment on the mind, an 11th team on the grid opens up two extra spaces for drivers in Formula 1. Who those drivers will be is likely to be a much-speculated talking point over the next few years. It follows intuitively that an American manufacturer would lean towards backing an American driver in the same way that Honda’s backing of Yuki Tsunoda was a key factor in securing his seat with VCARB. 

The leading candidate would then be Colton Herta who currently races for Andretti’s IndyCar team and was touted as a potential addition to the grid in 2023 with AlphaTauri before the team ultimately chose Nyck de Vries. Also in the running as leading young American drivers are 2024 Macau Grand Prix winner Ugo Ugochuckwu, who is currently a member of Mclaren’s driver academy, and Herta’s current teammate, 2021 Indy Lights champion Kyle Kirkwood.