General Motors to join F1 with Cadillac in 2026
Yesterday at 05:10 PM
It’s official: Formula One has made an agreement with GM to enter the sport in 2026 as a new team – with the full support of the FIA, unlike the earlier Andretti partnership bid – expanding the grid.
Formula One has signed an in-principle agreement with US car giant General Motors to join the F1 grid in 2026 under the Cadillac brand – with full support from F1’s governing body, the FIA – after an earlier proposal for a 2025 entry was rejected.
Cadillac will join the addition of the Ford and Audi brands to the 2026 grid as well as the recently-returned Toyota, which became a technical partner to the Haas team in 2024.
The arrangement will see General Motors (GM) join Formula One (F1) 2026 with its own car – when the next generation of F1 cars is due to begin racing – buying customer engines from an existing outfit.
It is only a stop-gap until GM introduces its own powerplants from 2028, the car maker announcing in November 2023 it planned to supply engines and hybrid tech to a yet-to-be-confirmed F1 team.
News of the GM team means there will be 22 cars on the F1 grid from 2026, two more than the current 20-car field.
The move comes after F1 previously approved a new Andretti Cadillac team for 2025 – in partnership with US motorsport specialists Andretti – which was controversially knocked back by the sport's governing body, the FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile).
In a January 2024 statement, the FIA reasoned the entry did not "add enough value" to F1 and would be uncompetitive on track, with rivals suggesting GM/Andretti should instead purchase an existing team.
This is the approach German car maker Audi took with its 2026 team, buying the existing Sauber squad as the basis of its entry.
A determined Michael Andretti – a former F1 and IndyCar racer who led the bid, through the Andretti outfit he owned – fuelled further tensions between the team and officials after launching legal action in the US.
In September 2024, Mr Andretti announced he would 'step back' from day-to-day operations in Andretti Global, serving in a less involved advisory role.
Andretti Global was the parent company of the Cadillac Andretti F1 bid, as well as other motorsport teams around the world including Walkinshaw Andretti United (WAU) currently racing Ford Mustangs in Australia's V8 Supercars championship (below).
In rejecting the Andretti bid, it's believed the FIA saw a manufacturer entry as more desirable – despite a track record of success from Andretti's teams – which is essentially what the revamped, fully supported GM/Cadillac team appears to be.
"I am fully supportive of the efforts made by the FIA, Formula 1, GM and the team to maintain dialogue and work towards this outcome of an agreement in principle to progress the application to bring GM/Cadillac branded team onto the grid for the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship," said FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem in a written statement.
"All parties, including the FIA, will continue to work together to ensure the process progresses smoothly.'
While there won't be an Andretti-branded car in F1, Mario Andretti – 1978 F1 world champion, and father of Michael – has been announced as the director on the board of the new GM/Cadillac F1 team.
Although it is not generally considered possible to develop a competitive team in around 16 months – when the 2026 season is due to start – the GM/Cadillac entry will benefit from the facilities Andretti continued to build despite his team's rejection.
The post General Motors to join F1 with Cadillac in 2026 appeared first on Drive.
