Formula One Management expects to formally approve the expansion of the grid to accommodate Cadillac as an 11th team in the near future.
The FIA and FOM confirmed in November the American carmaking giant had an “agreement in principle” to join the grid next year.With the new F1 season due to start next week, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali indicated confirmation of the grid’s expansion next season is imminent.
“There is the formality that is related to the process that [is] almost ready. Together with the FIA there has to be an update and whenever this will be ready, it should be not too long, there will be an update to formalise what basically has already happened. So they will be ready to fight against or together with the other teams for next year.”
Over two years have passed since the team originally applied to enter the championship. The FIA approved its application, originally made by Andretti Global, in October 2023.
Andretti subsequently attracted the backing of Cadillac as its future power unit supplier. Despite this, FOM rejected the team’s bid to enter the series in January last year, saying adding an 11th competitor “would not, in and of itself, provide value to the championship.”
FOM reversed its position later in the year and granted entry to the operation, which is now branded as Cadillac’s F1 team. Domenicali denied FOM had resisted the expansion of the grid when he spoke to investors last week.
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“It’s important to clarify that position,” he said. “We always said that Cadillac is giving, and will give, an incredible boost to the ecosystem of Formula 1. We were referring to other situations that were handled before, but now the picture is totally different.
“I think that Cadillac is preparing the entry – in terms of preparing the season, because it would not be an easy situation for them to be in such a high-tech and evolved sporting platform – they are doing everything in order to show how Cadillac is really involved into the sport.”
“GM […] want to be a real constructor or a manufacturer that will invest in our sport because they do believe in the technological platform that the F1 can provide to their system,” he added. “So I’m very, very happy that now this is on board, moving forward, and looking forward to see them on the track together with the other teams to fight for a great championship.”
Domenicali said the arrival of Andretti will not have implications for the next Concorde Agreement, which defines the relationship between FOM and the teams, and is due to come into force next year.
“There’s no impact at all with the current discussion of the Concorde Agreement,” he said. “Concorde is done by two major elements. One is the financial one that is related to the commercialisation and the marketing side of it. That discussion is between us and the teams and we are in a good position on that.
“The other topic or the other part of it is the governance. Of course, we need to work together with the FIA and the teams, and on that, we’re working in order to respect the dates. There’s no time pressure because we are all working as partners and we want to find the best solution for the sport.
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“This is something that we’re going to do even with one more team together into the future because of course Cadillac will be part of it and it will have a voice as the others into the future.”
Most of F1’s current teams resisted the expansion of the grid as they were concerned about a potential loss of earnings if FOM split the prize fund between 11 teams instead of 10. However Derek Chang, who replaced Greg Maffei as CEO of FOM’s owner Liberty Media last year, says their goal is to continue increasing the overall prize fund so teams’ earnings increase.
“In my early days here I have had the opportunity to meet with some of the teams over the last month or so and I think the relationship between Formula 1 and the teams has never been stronger,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot of good positive affirmation of that in terms of what Liberty has done since we acquired F1 and I think people really are excited about the future and growing the overall pie in terms of the economics of what the sport can deliver. Specifically on the Concorde Agreement and our splits with the teams, Stefano already remarked on the fact that hopefully we get the Concorde Agreement done soon.
“At this point the entry of an 11th team has not really impacted sort of that discussion per se and if you think about it, it doesn’t impact the splits between us and the team. It certainly is an 11th team in terms of the allocations amongst the teams themselves, but again, I think with the entry of a group like GM, the hope and the thought here is that we continue to grow the overall pie for Formula 1 and the Formula 1 ecosystem.”
The Cadillac Formula 1 team is part of TWG Motorsports, which was formed by investment company TWG Global last week to run its motorsport operations, including Andretti Global and others.
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MG1982 (@mg1982)
3rd March 2025, 13:38
Who’s next? Rolls-Royce?!?!? I thought Chevrolet is the sporty brand and Cadillac the luxury brand. Pushing Cadillac in the top international championships like F1 and WEC, while Chevrolet (still) competes (only) in an inferior category like GT, doesn’t make much sense to me.
Greg
3rd March 2025, 14:11
Cadillac is a sporty brand, they race in categories like IMSA and the WEC, and they have more presence in european and asian markets than other GM brands
anon
3rd March 2025, 21:40
Greg, Cadillac has a pretty minor presence in the European market – from 2017 until October 2023, it was not even possible to buy a Cadillac in Europe, as General Motors had withdrawn that brand from Europe entirely.
Whilst General Motors are now making another attempt at selling Cadillac’s in Europe, their sales are still restricted to just a handful of countries (Switzerland, Sweden, France and Germany), meaning they are not present in most European countries. They are also only selling a single model in Europe, which is the Lyriq (an electrically powered SUV) and given they’re only present in a few countries, sales are predictably very limited – we’re talking a few thousand cars a year currently across all of their European markets.
Cadillac therefore doesn’t really have much more of a presence in Europe than any other of GM’s brands, and they’re not using their motorsport activities in their promotional material either – instead, the image they have been trying to create in Europe is that of a more prestigious and luxurious experience.
It doesn’t really make sense to associate Cadillac with motorsport in Europe, because that’s not the image they’ve been trying to create for Cadillac in their market – it’s arguably even counter-productive, given that most wouldn’t associate “motorsport” with “comfort” or a “luxurious interior”.
By contrast, it would make far more sense to associate their F1 team with Chevrolet in the European market. Whilst GM withdrew Chevrolet’s mass market models from Europe, they have continued selling the Corvette in Europe and marketed it as an alternative sportscar choice and do bring up the performance of the Corvette GT cars in sportscar racing as a selling point – so, given they’re already creating an association between motorsport, high performance road cars and Chevrolet in Europe, it’d make far more sense to link Chevrolet with Formula 1 in that market.
El Pollo Loco
4th March 2025, 3:38
Indeed. Cadillac has really only been used here and there because Chevy does have this sort of weird lack of a sporting image or brand besides the Corvette. Very few people think of Cadillac and sporty in the same sentence. The closest they’ve come is the CTS V which has an odd duckling image and isn’t even really widely known outside of enthusiast circles. So, it feels very odd. I guess it can make sense if they actually try to expand the Cadillac brand to include real sports cars. I’d have much preferred the entry to have maintained the Andretti name. Doesn’t make much difference though.
It still feels a bit unreal (in a good way) to finally have an 11th coming to the grid so soon.
An Sionnach
4th March 2025, 14:30
So, they won’t be entering 1960s space-aged designs in F1, then? Will they be pink?!?
An Sionnach
4th March 2025, 14:38
I saw this very funny film once called The Solid Gold Cadillac. Judy Holliday is great in it. Outside of films, I’m not sure I’ve seen an actual car over here!
El Pollo Loco
6th March 2025, 16:35
Well, I am hearing in an effort to attract more US manufacturers, they’re changing the 2026 rules to mandate all chassis be clad in bodywork that has a “flashy, part rocket age part quasi art deco themed appearance in sedan form.” So, fingers crossed.
SteveP
3rd March 2025, 18:32
So, another variant of the story/timeline? We’re now being told that when the application went through the FIA process it didn’t have the GM/Cadillac PU even as a follow-up to running with a Renault PU?
Therefore, the reason for allowing Andretti and not allowing Hitech was… ?? (Let’s ignore the FIA not having jurisdiction regarding commercial viability etc. and getting themselves sued)
Why aren’t we discussing the impending Hitech entry?
anon
3rd March 2025, 22:11
SteveP, Cadillac had confirmed that they would be providing technical support in January 2023, so there was already an association between the Andretti entry before the application was approved.
There is also some question about the timeline for the announcement of the engine plans – whilst GM publicly announced their intentions to enter as an engine manufacturer in November 2023, which was the month after the FIA’s decision was announced, they did hint that they’d already held discussions with the FIA on that front. They did therefore seem to hint that they had discussions with the FIA about entering as an engine manufacturer before the public announcement was made – so, whilst the public announcement may have been in November, there are some hints that the FIA was receiving commitments from GM to back an engine programme before the public announcement was made.
As for Hitech, the big problem there is that few people are have any knowledge of what exactly was going on there, and none of them can talk about it in public.
After being ruled out of the bidding process, Hitech challenged the decision, with the indication that it went to arbitration at an industrial tribunal. However, that meant that neither side was allowed to speak to the press about the case (neither side have even publicly acknowledged that there were arbitration proceedings) and, given the details of the case are not in the public domain, we don’t know what arguments were put forward by either side.
SteveP
4th March 2025, 13:49
My comment related to the bit I quoted, which is suggesting a different timeline.
Now either Keith is confused, or the info he’s using is mistakenly wrong as supplied, or someone is playing around with different versions of the info, and they can’t get their story straight.
This is not knocking Andretti, GM etc.
This is me frowning deeply when I see yet another variant of the story, and it makes me think that various different parties in the bid process have been a bit vague with their “truth”.
Leaks suggest that the FIA had their rear end severely kicked for massively overstepping their jurisdiction (they have no authority to exclude on commercial grounds)
I do wonder if that will flow through to presenting Hitech as a candidate for a 12th team for FOM to consider.
anon
5th March 2025, 20:34
SteveP, I think that it’s potentially a case of Keith forgetting some of the commitments that General Motors made in early 2023 and therefore making a few mistakes with the timeline.
With regards to Hitech, whilst those may be the rumours, given that nothing is in the public domain with respect to that case, we have to treat it with a bit of caution given that it’s based on what comments people might pass on to the press, which may not be the entire picture of what went on.
That said, when it does come to the finances of Hitech, those have been somewhat opaque and there have been questions raised about who really controls the team. Oliver Oakes has been rather open about his personal links to Dmitry Mazepin and, from 2017 to 2022, Hitech was owned by either Fungosa Management, a company that owns trademarks associated with Dmitry Mazepin, Uralkali (run by Dmitry Mazepin), and Bergton Management, a Cypriot-based company that is widely believed to be owned by Dmitry Mazepin.
Whilst Oakes did take ownership of Hitech in 2022, there have been people questioning where he got the money from to do that. To that end, in November 2022, Oakes was personally cited in a UK Parliamentary debate about the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, where one MP effectively accused Oakes of acting as a proxy for Dmitry Mazepin and using Hitech as a means to evade financial sanctions that had been imposed on Dmitry.