A Formula One team is set to build its engines in Concord. Although the grid expansion was approved last November, it was not until Friday that governing body FIA and Formula One Management said the Cadillac F1 effort meets all the requirements to become the 11th team in the series next season.
“I am proud to lead the Federation in this progressive step for the championship,” FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem said in a statement, who called adding an 11th team “a milestone” and a “transformative moment.”
The team is owned by General Motors and TWG Motorsports, an arm of the larger TWG Global group owned by co-chairs Mark Walter and Thomas Tull. TWG Global has controlling interest in the Los Angeles Dodgers, Premier League club Chelsea, the Professional Women’s Hockey League, as well as stakes in the Los Angeles Lakers and other ventures.
Cadillac F1 will be the second American-owned team on the grid, joining Haas F1, which is owned by California businessman Gene Haas. The Haas program does not have an American driver or a partnership with an American manufacturer, but it is sponsored by MoneyGram.
Cadillac F1 anticipates being distinctively American with its partnership with General Motors and the possibility of IndyCar driver Colton Herta, a California native, in the two-car lineup.
It took more than four years to get the project approved by FOM despite the backing of the FIA and Ben Sulayem. At issue was an apparent breakdown in any relationship between F1 and Michael Andretti, who spent part of one season as an F1 driver and has never been warmly embraced in the European series.
But Andretti sold controlling interest of his motorsports ventures to Dan Towriss late last year and is no longer involved in the project. That helped TWG and Cadillac get the F1 bid approved.
“For the past years, we have worked hand in hand with GM to lay a robust foundation for an extraordinary F1 entry,” said Towriss, CEO of TWG Motorsports. “Now, with 2026 in our sights, we’re accelerating our efforts — expanding our facilities, refining cutting-edge technologies and continuing to assemble top-tier talent.”
Cadillac’s powertrains will not be ready for some time, and the team will lease engines from Ferrari until General Motors has a product ready to compete. The powertrains will be built in a facility on the North Carolina campus of Hendrick Motorsports in Concord, while the F1 program will be run from a new facility being built in Indiana and a second factory in Silverstone, England.
