Why Cadillac is joining F1, and how its road cars could benefit

US automotive giant General Motors will finally join the Formula One World Championship in 2026, with luxury brand Cadillac flying the flag.

Overnight, Formula One announced it had reached an agreement in principle with General Motors and its partner TWG Global (an investment and consulting firm) to allow Cadillac to compete from 2026.

It marks the first arrival of a new team in Formula One since 2016 – when fellow US-headquartered squad Haas joined the championship – and will see the grid expanded to 11 teams.

It also ends a drawn-out period of General Motors attempting to gain entry to the championship, having first formally expressed interest in February 2023 under the Andretti Global Racing and Cadillac banners, only to be rejected by Formula One administrators in January this year.

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Cadillac’s debut will align with the sport’s move to a new regulation set in 2026, which will see an all-new power unit design that sees a greater percentage of electric power compared to the internal-combustion engine, the latter of which will run on wholly sustainable fuels.

From 2026, Cadillac will build its own cars and power units, making it a works team. It’ll be the sixth confirmed engine-maker on the grid, alongside Mercedes (Alpine, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG, Williams), Honda (Aston Martin), Ferrari (Ferrari, Haas), Audi (Audi) and Red Bull Ford (Red Bull Racing, Racing Bulls/RB).

While the V6 engine will be bespoke to its Formula One racers (and in no way related to the engines powering the CT4-V Blackwing, CT5, XT5 and XT6), Cadillac says its learnings in the championship will be used in road-going products.

“Innovations created for F1 will contribute to GM’s push to drive the future of transportation, leveraging advanced electrification, powertrain, software, and internal combustion engine technology for consumers around the globe,” the carmaker said in a media statement.

“Launching an F1 team will also highlight the Cadillac brand to a diverse international audience, showcasing GM’s technology and design capabilities.”

General Motors president Mark Reuss added: “This is a global stage for us to demonstrate GM’s engineering expertise and technology leadership at an entirely new level.”

It’s not yet clear whether the team’s manufacturing operations will be based in the US – where General Motors and Andretti have bases in Indiana, North Carolina and Michigan – or the UK, where Andretti recently opened a facility in Silverstone, near the home of the British Grand Prix.

What is known is Mario Andretti – the 1978 Formula One champion and four-time IndyCar title winner – will serve as the director of the team’s board.

This is despite his son Michael Andretti being the initial leader of Cadillac’s Formula One bid, having relinquished his role as Andretti Global CEO to Dan Towriss amid tension between the former F1 driver and the sport’s administrators.

The announcement of Cadillac joining Formula One was welcomed by the sport, which is on a long-standing quest to break into the US market where three Grands Prix are hosted every year.

“With Formula 1’s continued growth plans in the US, we have always believed that welcoming an impressive US brand like GM/Cadillac to the grid and GM as a future power unit supplier could bring additional value and interest to the sport,” said Greg Maffei, outgoing president and CEO of Formula One’s owners, Liberty Media.

“We credit the leadership of General Motors and their partners with significant progress in their readiness to enter Formula 1. We are excited to move forward with the application process for the GM/Cadillac team to enter the Championship in 2026.”

Cadillac has recently been the flagship of General Motors’ global motorsport operations, having joined the World Endurance Championship in 2023 as the sport moved to a new regulation set.

It aims to be just the second US team to win a Formula One race, a feat not achieved since Team Penske did so at the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix.

The team is also yet to finalise its driver lineup for the 2026 season.

Prior to Andretti Global’s failed initial bid to join the Formula One grid, US driver Colton Herta – who has taken eight of his nine IndyCar victories with Andretti – was strongly linked to the seat.

Mario Andretti remains the most recent US driver to win a Formula Once race, having taken victory in the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix en route to his championship.