Cadillac's Road to Formula 1

New York Times

02-05-2025

In every sense, the clock is ticking on Cadillac's entry into Formula 1 next year.
In March, Cadillac, supported by General Motors and TWG Motorsports, received final approval from Formula 1, expanding the grid to 11 teams for the first time since 2016.
'As soon as we got the entry, one of the things that changed is they put up a countdown clock at the factory in Silverstone,' Dan Towriss, the chief executive of TWG Motorsports, said in an interview in April. The company is a division of TWG Global, which has a sports portfolio that includes the Chelsea Football Club and the Los Angeles Dodgers and Lakers.
'We know exactly how many days to the engine's fired, how many days to the first race,' he said. 'That's how we have to think about it because there's so much work to do between now and then. It's moving faster than I want it to.'
The Cadillac entry started life as Andretti Formula Racing two years ago. The F.I.A., the governing body of Formula 1, approved the proposal from Michael Andretti, the initial force behind the bid. A few months later, it was rejected by Formula 1.
In an interview a year ago with The New York Times, Andretti said he would fight. Last fall, he stepped back as chief executive of Andretti Global, which owns teams in IndyCar, Formula E, Extreme E and Australian Supercars. He decided 'it was time to pass the baton' to his business partner Towriss.
'From Michael's standpoint, he was very magnanimous in a way,' said Towriss, who has known Andretti since 2017. 'He didn't want to stand in the way of this project.
'It was a long process, a taxing process, and so he chose to step away. He wasn't asked to step away, he wasn't asked to leave. I think he saw that a level of acceptance wasn't there for him.'
Towriss said the move 'opened the door' with Formula 1. Five months later, Stefano Domenicali, Formula 1 president and chief executive, welcomed Cadillac.
With the commitment of G.M. to bring in a Cadillac team, Domenicali said, 'it was an important and positive demonstration of the evolution of our sport.'
Cadillac will become the second U.S. automaker to have a presence in the sport. Ford will provide power units to Red Bull, also starting in 2026.
Towriss is saddened that Andretti stepped down. 'Just tremendous respect for what the family legacy is in motorsports, for him personally, for Mario, and the family from that standpoint,' he said, referring to Andretti's father.
'My personal opinion is that it all felt a bit unfair to be singled out in that way,' he said. 'To his credit, at some point, you just have to accept the situation for what it is and move on. With his blessing, that's what we did.'
Throughout the process, the team did not stand still. Workers were hired, and the facility in Silverstone, England, was opened a year ago to complement its headquarters near Indianapolis. Formula 1's approval has accelerated the project's growth.
Without a guarantee from Formula 1 of acceptance, the company still had to make a commitment. 'It was not for the faint of heart,' Towriss said.
'It takes a long time to build a Formula 1 team. I don't think anybody on our side, or anybody who knows the sport, thinks you can just show up and in a short period of time, do that.
'If we had waited until the point we were approved and then said, 'Great, now let's start hiring people, let's start building,' we'd be a long way from racing at that point.'
Towriss said that Graeme Lowdon, a longtime Formula 1 executive who advised the team, was a great salesperson in convincing people to join the team. Lowdon was chief executive of the now-defunct Manor Racing.
He had also been a consultant on the acquisition in 2020 of the Williams Formula 1 team by Dorilton Capital, a private investment firm whose headquarters are in New York City.
In December, Lowdon was announced as the team principal of Cadillac. 'At the very beginning, a big part of the advice was to tell them to start building the team now,' he said in an interview in April.
'Then my engagement changed because they said: 'OK, we're happy with all this advice. Now you're asking us to build a team. Can you go from advising to doing it?' I guess I must have earned their trust, and they must have had confidence in what I'm doing because they then asked me to be the team principal.'
Being offered the position did not come out of the blue. 'Even on our entry, I was down as the team principal,' he said. 'For two years now, on our race license — and we have a U.S. race license, and an international race license — it's my picture on it. That was something that was envisaged fairly early on.'
Throughout the two years, Lowdon never doubted that the bid would fail. 'There is absolutely no scenario on earth where you could keep a perfectly good sports team from competing in a world championship,' he said, although there was a consequence.
'The thing that worried me and stressed me enormously, and I have to say it took a toll on me big time, was that it's one thing saying it will definitely happen, it's another saying when.
'We completely respected the process. Our role was to answer questions, but there's only so much of that you can do. That was an unpleasant and enormously difficult period.'
The team has about 350 employees, with a target of 550 by the end of the year. Pat Symonds, former chief technical officer of Formula 1, has become the executive engineering consultant. and Nick Chester, once a technical director at Renault, is the chief technical officer.
'I thought it was going to be super difficult to hire people, but it was much easier than I thought,' Lowdon said. 'The reality is, we were very lucky. We were in a position where a lot of the early discussions with key people who came on board shared the vision.'
'On the day our entry was confirmed, we wrote to them, with an old-fashioned letter. It wasn't an 'at-all' email. The reason for that is they'd all taken a bit of a leap of faith, and we wanted to show our appreciation personally.'
For the first three seasons, Cadillac will be powered by Ferrari engines until G.M. builds its power unit, which will debut in 2029.
Mark Reuss, the president of G.M., said in an interview in April that it was 'a moment filled with pride, a truly historic event for the entire company' when Formula 1 confirmed the entry.
From 2026 through 2028, G.M. will support Cadillac technically, including aerodynamics, performance engineering and manufacturing as it builds to become 'a distinctly American team,' Reuss said.
He is aware of the challenge ahead. 'G.M. and Cadillac have been at the forefront of racing and winning in elite series for more than a century,' he said. 'We do not underestimate the level of competition nor the level of commitment needed to be included in F1.'
With nine months to go until the first Cadillac/G.M. car hits the track in preseason testing, the race is on, with the countdown clock providing a continual update.
'The last time Dan was across,' Lowdon said, referring to Towriss, 'he talked to everyone at Silverstone, and he ended his address by saying, 'As you can see on the wall, we've got X number of days left, so let's crack on.'
'Everybody knows what the mission is.'