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Henry Payne: How Cadillac integrates motorsports to compete on the world stage
LE MANS, France - For 15 years, Cadillac has been assembling the pieces to reassert itself as the Standard of the World. A cornerstone of that plan has been to take on its international competition in their backyards, at the track, on the world's biggest stages.
From the 24 Hours of Le Mans to Paris to Miami, that vision has bloomed in 2025.
As tennis legend Roger Federer waved the French tricolors to start Le Mans Saturday, two gold, Hertz-sponsored, V-8-powered, Cadillac V-Series.R Hypercars led the field of Porsches, Ferraris and BMWs into Turn One before an estimated 332,000 spectators and another 100 million-plus viewers around the globe. Among them were visitors to Cadillac's flagship European showroom in downtown Paris watching the race on video screens surrounded by the brand's sleek, electric Lyriq-V. More tuned in from their phones like the millions who watched Cadillac's official May launch of its Formula One team at the Miami Grand Prix.
"We haven't sold cars here in a long time," said General Motors Co. President Mark Reuss in Cadillac's Le Mans paddock suite Sunday while 62 of the world's premier race cars - including four V-8-powered - thundered by. "What Cadillac stands for is important, so here in a race like this - or wherever we race - it's about technology, it's about our best, it's about bringing it into our portfolio of cars."
Win on Sunday, sell on Monday. It's a hallmark of Le Mans where brands from Ferrari to Porsche to Ford have translated track success to global sales.
Reuss and his team are determined that Cadillac join that list. He says it requires commitment that GM has lacked in the past.
"Cadillac is on a real roll here by plan," said Reuss, the architect of Caddy's journey. "We've invested a lot of money over a fairly long period, which the company hasn't done in a long, long time. So, I think that is starting to pay off. We're not nearly done. You can see the results in the brand, what people think of the brand, and the sales."
Reuss has followed in the footsteps of his father, Lloyd Reuss, GM president from 1990-92. Like Henry Ford II, who captained Ford's Le Mans victories over Ferrari in the 1960s, his passion is a primal force inside GM.
The Le Mans start was a poster moment, an image that will live on garage walls like Ford's three GT40s crossing the line 1-2-3 in 1966 or twin, yellow Chevy Corvettes crossing the stripe in a near dead heat for the 2016 24 Hours of Daytona.
And that's before Cadillac enters Formula One next year with its estimated 750-million fan base.
"I never imagined that a video of a brand reveal in Miami would get 10 million (viewers) the next day," marveled Reuss. "It's just extraordinary. "Whatever we thought, it was actually much bigger than that."
This year's race had a distinctive Motown sound as GT3-class Mustangs, Corvettes and Cadillac V-8 Hypercars pounded around the 8.5-mile circuit. But no Detroit badge is more aggressive at using motorsports to push its brand into Europe than Caddy.
Indeed, Ferrari is the only other manufacturer (not Mercedes, Porsche or BMW) that has committed itself to entries in both F1 and Le Mans Hypercar - the summit of motorsports. "If you don't compete at the top tier, then you're never going to be seen," said Reuss.
International racing's emphasis on manufacturer technology is important to Cadillac. Formula One is the cutting edge of automotive technology with pneumatic valves, hybrid power units (F1-speak for powertrain) and synthetic fuels. So too, its world sportscar cousin in France boasts similar technologies and speeds. On the jumbotron screen here at Le Mans, the leaderboard displays - not drivers like the Indianapolis 500 (which hosted 350,000 fans this year) - but car brands.
"These Hypercars are not simple," said Reuss of the 800-volt, hybrid-electric, 690-horse V-8 thoroughbreds thundering around the track behind him. "We're doing some pretty sophisticated things here. (Formula One and World Endurance Racing) are some of the last series where you can make original parts. That's cool, that's creative."
Cadillac's history of technological innovation is why it has invested heavily in electrification. The luxury brand has been an innovator over the years in tech like the electric self-starter (1912), air suspension (1957) and magnetic ride suspension (2022).
Today, the cutting edge is battery, motor and digital tech, and the three Cadillacs sold in Europe - Lyriq, Optiq, Vistiq - are on the bleeding edge.
Significantly, Reuss said Cadillac is not going all-electric as advertised in its EV Day five years ago. Customer preference has not dovetailed with government EV mandates - especially in the United States - and automakers are focusing EVs on the niche luxury market.
"We will continue to build up Cadillac both from an electric propulsion standpoint but also from an internal combustion engine standpoint," said Reuss. "We are not going away with our ICE engines here (in Europe) either. (The V-Series.R) happens to be a hybrid."
Still, despite market pushback, the European Union has doubled down on forcing the end of new ICE vehicle sales by 2035. Cities like Paris have drafted plans (currently on hold due to consumer resistance) that restrict the use of ICEs by establishing zero-emission zones.
"Things will change, and so we'll be ready from a regulatory standpoint," said Reuss. "But at end of the day, driving a really good vehicle - however it is propelled - is really important for us. It gets down to product every time."
F1 has also received manufacturer pushback on its 50-50 hybrid powertrain plan for 2028, the first year Cadillac will bring its own, in-house-developed power unit to the stage (Ferrari will provide power for the 2026 season). Batteries are expensive and synfuels are in the conversation as an alternative that would not only power F1 cars - but also ICE production vehicles.
It's another technical challenge that Reuss sees playing to GM's strength in innovation.
"We are a works team," he said emphasizing that Cadillac, like Ferrari and Mercedes, will develop its own F1 car. "Not a chassis team, not an engine team - a works team, and that separates us. First time ever there has been an American works team."
"Cadillac is named after a small town in southwest Fance," said Cadillac France Sales Chief Chahine Bouaiache on the Paris show floor, where a V-Series.R Hypercar greeted showroom visitors during Le Mans Week. "We are selling our cars to Parisians who love the design of the car. The (Lyriq) designer was a French woman" (Magalie Debellis, former manager of Cadillac Advanced Design).
In the Le Mans paddock 130 miles west, Senior Vice President of GM Global Design Mike Simcoe pointed to the Cadillac race car's lines - their vertical, sharp edges echoing those of the production EVs.
"Design of the car is an important part of Cadillac's rebirth," said Reuss. "Design language is very different than it was 10-20 years ago. That is (key) to how many Lyriqs we've sold in France."
Since the showroom opened last year, Cadillac has grown to France's fourth best-selling EV maker. Four more are now open in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. In 2024, the highest-placed V-Series.R at Le Mans was seventh. This year, the pole-sitting car finished 5th overall behind three Ferraris and a Porsche. In March, Cadillac will make its F1 debut in Melbourne, Australia.
"We've tried to be the Standard of the World a lot of different ways," said Reuss. "We probably didn't do a good job of building up the portfolio. What we are doing now is the right way: you go product-by-product, success-by-success, and keep bringing Cadillac back to what people know."
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