It has been announced that a deal between Formula 1 and General Motors have been agreed with the Cadillac brand set to join the series in 2026 as an 11th team.
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The deal was discussed during last weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, with GM officials meeting up with F1 and Liberty Media.
The team will join in 2026 as a customer team, but they will be building and developing their own power units for the 2028 season.
It will be the first time since 2016 that the sport will have 11 different teams on the grid, with the departure of Manor Racing at the end of that year reducing the grid to 20 drivers.
Supporters of the World Endurance Championship will be familiar with the Cadillac brand, who have competed in the last two seasons in that series and picked up a pole position at the 6 hours of Fuji in September.
In a statement this afternoon, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said: “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.
“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.”
General Motors president Mark Reuss added: “As the pinnacle of motorsports, F1 demands boundary-pushing innovation and excellence. It’s an honor for General Motors and Cadillac to join the world’s premier racing series, and we’re committed to competing with passion and integrity to elevate the sport for race fans around the world. This is a global stage for us to demonstrate GM’s engineering expertise and technology leadership at an entirely new level.”
Whilst President and CEO of Formula 1 Stefano Domenicali said: “General Motors and Cadillac’s commitment to this project is an important and positive demonstration of the evolution of our sport. We look forward to seeing the progress and growth of this application, certain of the full collaboration and support of all the parties involved.”
Verdict from team principals
The motion of adding an 11th team into the sport had been ongoing for quite some time, especially with the rumours of an Andretti team joining, which was heavily backed by Micheal Andretti.
Mclaren’s Zak Brown would welcome the new addition to the grid as he spoke to Sky Sports after Friday’s practice session: “They’ve got a great history in motorsport, General Motors, so I think it’s great, more competition. Something for the fans to get excited about. They love new grands prix, new power units, new racing teams, new racing drivers, so I think it will be exciting.”
On the other hand, Christian Horner had concerns over the finances ahead of the qualifying session on Sky Sports F1: “So long as logistically it can be accommodated. We’d have absolutely no problem with seeing GM come here but we’re not paying for it.
“We’ve got no issue with them coming. We’d welcome them with open arms but you don’t want to see the prize fund diluted.
“So there will be that question of whose side of the cake does it come out of? Probably a bit of everybody’s.”