General Motors is set to become the first U.S. automaker with a Formula 1 team when a Cadillac-branded team joins the racing series in 2026, F1 announced Monday, ending a years-long battle between the series and former driver Michael Andretti, who initially proposed a GM expansion.
Key Facts
- Formula 1 has reached an agreement with General Motors to bring an 11th team, called Cadillac F1, to its grid in 2026.
- The team will be run by Andretti Global majority owners Dan Towriss and Mark Walter after Andretti himself stepped aside from leading the organization in September.
- General Motors plans to have a Cadillac engine built for competition in time for the 2028 season, the Associated Press reported, and the team will use Ferrari engines its first two years.
- What drivers will race for the team is still unknown, but Andretti’s initial dream was to build a team with all American drivers and names that have been floated as contenders include Colton Herta, Alexander Rossi and Josef Newgarden.
- The Cadillac team will not be the only American team on the F1 grid—the Haas F1 team is owned by California businessman Gene Haas—but that team is ranked in the bottom half and hasn’t fielded an American driver since it joined F1 in 2016.
Key Background
The approval of the GM team ends an inquiry from the Justice Department into Liberty Media, owner of the Formula One Group, after Andretti Global was denied entry into the Formula 1 World Championship for 2024. Legendary F1 racer Mario Andretti announced in 2022 his son, Michael, had filed a petition with Formula One to enter Andretti Global in F1 in 2024.
Six months later, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, F1’s governing body, said it was not planning to increase the number of teams, and several team officials came out against the idea. In 2023, Andretti Global said they planned to enter Formula One in conjunction with General Motors and Cadillac, but the bid was rejected in January after Formula One Group said it didn’t think the team would be competitive and that the Andretti name wouldn’t bring as much value to the series as the father-son duo believed.
At one point, F1 asked GM to find another team to partner with besides Andretti Global, according to the AP, a request GM refused. In May, a handful of U.S. senators called on the Justice Department to look into the rejection, saying that there were concerns Formula 1 was violating antitrust laws with its rejection. In September, Michael Andretti announced he would step back from his day-to-day role with Andretti Global but the move wasn’t “a goodbye” to a team run under his name. Earlier this month, Liberty Media announced the resignation of CEO Greg Maffei, believed to be one Andretti’s biggest opponents.
Surprising Fact
There are currently no American drivers racing for F1. Logan Sargeant, a Florida native, became the first American F1 driver since 2015 when was signed to race for Williams in 2023, and he raced for one and a half seasons before being replaced for the remainder of the 2024 season. Phil Hill of Florida is the only American-born Formula One champion (he won the Italian Grand Prix in 1961) and Mario Andretti is considered the most successful driver to drive as an American, but he was born in Italy and lived there until he was 15 years old. Andretti initially said he wanted to build a truly American team with an American driver.
