After Years of Drama, Cadillac Will Definitely Race in F1 in 2026

F1 has confirmed the American team's entry. Now there's only one question left to ask: Who will be driving for Cadillac's maiden season?

By Nico DeMattia

Posted on Mar 7, 2025

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GM

The Cadillac Formula 1 team has officially been confirmed. Officials just announced that Cadillac received the final approval it needed, and its team—backed by TWG Motorsports and General Motors—will be going racin’ come 2026.

“As we said in November, the commitment by General Motors to bring a Cadillac team to Formula 1 was an important and positive demonstration of the evolution of our sport,” said F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali. “I want to thank GM and TWG Motorsports for their constructive engagement over many months and look forward to welcoming the team on the grid from 2026 for what will be another exciting year for Formula 1.”

This has been a long time coming, and sadly, it’s involved lots of drama between GM, Michael Andretti, and Formula 1. We’ve been huge supporters of this project since the very beginning, covering every move between the various parties involved. And at times, it truly felt like it was just not going to materialize due to some petty characters.

Between Andretti-Cadillac’s initial proposal being rejected, the beef between former Liberty Media Greg Maffei and the Andretti family, and Michael eventually stepping down from his own company, getting the final approval from all levels of the sport is an enormous relief.

“We’re thrilled the Cadillac Formula 1 Team is official, as the team has been accelerating its work,” said Reuss. “We’re incredibly grateful for the support from the FIA and Formula One Management leadership for us and for our partners at TWG. The excitement only grows as we get closer to showcasing GM’s engineering expertise on the prestigious global stage of F1.”

Cadillac F1’s team principal will be Graeme Lowdon, the former Sporting Director of Marussia F1, and its cars will initially be powered by Ferrari engines. However, the newly created TWG GM Performance Power Units will develop F1 V6 engines for its own cars, making Cadillac a full works team by 2030.

It will be fun to see what Mercedes-AMG team boss Toto Wolff has to say, as he’s been strongly against the Americans becoming the sport’s 11th team from the beginning. Even after Cadillac agreed to pay a $450 million anti-dilution fee to prevent an additional team thinning winnings profits spread among all teams, Wolff felt it wasn’t enough. “The compensation fee, which is currently set at $450 million, is too low. It does not make up for the direct loss in income,” he told German outlet Sport Auto in January, as reported by Planet F1.

Regardless of how team principals feel about it, Cadillac will officially be in the big show in 2026. The team has over 200 people working on its chassis, aerodynamics, software, and vehicle dynamics in facilities in Fishers, Indiana; Charlotte, North Carolina; Warren, Michigan; and Silverstone, England. The only question now is, who will be driving its F1 cars?

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Nico DeMattia

Staff Writer

Nico DeMattia is a staff writer at The Drive. He started writing about cars on his own blog to express his opinions when no one else would publish them back in 2015, and eventually turned it into a full-time career.