MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The new Cadillac F1 team officially announced its arrival at a glitzy South Beach extravaganza packed with industry executives and influencers and highlighted by a musical showcase from Janelle Monáe and actor Terry Crews Jr., who shared an anecdote about how he’d never been born had his father not relocated at age 20 to Flint, Michigan, in search of a job with General Motors.
A splashy video ultimately unveiled the Cadillac F1 team logo at a multimillion-dollar party jammed elbow-to-elbow in the Queen Miami Beach venue.
What wasn’t revealed? Cadillac’s car, a bit of a disappointment for those who expected to see all the bells and whistles at the brand launch introduction to F1’s newest team.
No worries, promised the leaders of the new team: Cadillac F1 is on pace to be on the grid in 2026.
“We’re building cars, we’ve been in the wind tunnel for a long time,” said Dan Towriss, CEO of TWG Motorsports, the team owner. “Chassis has arrived, we’re continuing to add (personnel) to the team, there are so many work streams that are happening all at once. But I want to make sure everybody understands just how deep the partnership is with General Motors and with Cadillac. I think that’s something that really will set apart this team, this entry, on the grid.”
Cadillac will debut in 2026 with a two-car lineup that will push the F1 field to 22 cars — the first time since 2016 the grid will have more than 20 cars.
A long drive
It was a long road for Cadillac F1 to get to this point. The project started with Michael Andretti, who failed to buy Sauber in his effort to create a true American team that would feature at least one American driver. When he didn’t close the Sauber deal, Andretti petitioned F1 and governing body FIA to expand the field for Andretti Global, which led to the equivalent of an IRS audit during a grueling application process.
F1 denied the application.
Towriss and Cadillac pressed on — they spent the last year saying work on the project “continues on pace” — and when Towriss bought out Andretti late last year, F1 changed course and the new team was suddenly fast-tracked.
General Motors President Mark Reuss was finally able to attend an F1 race — the Miami Grand Prix over the weekend — in an official capacity. So geeked to finally be in the club, Reuss pulled out his phone to play an audio clip for reporters of the first Cadillac engine being fired.
Cadillac will initially race with Ferrari engines before GM’s power unit is ready for 2029. Reuss said the Cadillac approach is deliberate to have a reliable, fast engine rather than rush one out for next season.
“You have to go slow to go fast,” Reuss said.
Cadillac will have the largest U.S. presence of any F1 team and will operate out of facilities in Fishers, Indiana, as well as in Charlotte, North Carolina. The team also has a satellite facility at Silverstone, England.
Who will drive for Cadillac F1?
When Andretti first launched this project, he was adamant it was for an American driver, specifically California native and current IndyCar driver Colton Herta.
Now the list of potential drivers is rather long. Towriss and Reuss were adamant they’ve yet to sign a driver amid reports that Sergio Perez has already signed. The need for there to be an American is not a pressing issue to TWG.
“There’s a lot of interest in this team and we’re very appreciative of that,” Towriss said. “We want that person set up for success, and want that seat respected when that American driver does come in for the team. … We’ll find the right way and the right time to bring the right driver into Formula 1.”
IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward, who races under the Mexican flag but spent most of his childhood in Texas, wants a seat. Towriss said they had a funny run-in two weeks ago at the Indianapolis 500 open test when the elevator Towriss was in opened and there was O’Ward; they joked they would talk.
McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown said he wouldn’t prevent O’Ward from pursuing a seat with Cadillac. O’Ward drives for McLaren in IndyCar and is the team’s F1 reserve driver.
“I wouldn’t like it, but I wouldn’t stop him,” Brown said.
Valtteri Bottas, now an F1 reserve driver for Mercedes, told The Associated Press he is very interested while IndyCar driver Colton Herta has recently hedged on whether he wants the seat.
There are a number of Americans who could be candidates, especially if the team is willing to wait until deeper into its existence to hire one. NASCAR driver Connor Zilisch, an 18-year-old quickly climbing through the stock car series’ ladder system, initially pursued European racing in his career. Sebastian Wheldon, who is deep into the Andretti Global driver development program, on Saturday won his debut Italian F4 race at Misano with Prema Racing.
Another idea could put a long-debated topic to the test: NASCAR champion Kyle Larson, who often comes up as potentially the only driver in the world who could match F1 standout Max Verstappen in talent.
When AP asked Reuss about the possibility of Larson, Reuss said “let’s focus on Indianapolis first.” Larson will run for McLaren and Chevrolet for a second consecutive year in the Indianapolis 500 later this month.
Potential effect of tariffs
Reuss said GM’s F1 efforts will not be affected by President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs despite a potential $5 billion (£3.8bn) impact. Despite reversing a number of the planned tariffs on imports in recent weeks, a 25% tariff is still in place.
“This is a long-term footprint that we have that are very old in some cases, that have been there a long time,” Reuss said. “So we’re working to bring as much as we can into the United States and avoid the tariffs. But not at all cost, and it doesn’t happen overnight. There’s no light switch that says, ‘Oh, all of a sudden we’re tariff-free.’
“You probably would have seen over the last few days, we did earnings on the early part of the week, and then we came back and did the earnings review and guidance. In that second one, there’s about $5 billion of impact for us. But it’s not going to affect this (F1) project.”
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Jenna Fryer, The Associated Press
A values-driven underdog story
