GM's 2023 TWG partnership laid groundwork for Cadillac's F1 entry

Cadillac’s Formula 1 entry looks sudden if you start the clock in March 2025, when F1 finally approved the team for the 2026 grid. But the real story starts earlier — in January 2023, when General Motors and Andretti announced they wanted in, with Cadillac as the brand on the car. That first move mattered because it turned an abstract American F1 ambition into a named industrial project. What happened after that was a slow reshaping of the bid until Formula 1 could treat it less like an outside application and more like a future manufacturer team. ### What was the first real foundation stone? The first load-bearing step was GM joining the original Andretti effort on January 5, 2023. The plan was explicit from day one — an Andretti Cadillac team, based in the U.S. with a U.K. support facility, chasing a place on the F1 grid. That matters because Cadillac did not appear at the end as a sticker on somebody else’s race car. GM put its flagship luxury brand into the project at the start, which gave the bid manufacturer weight even before the structure changed. (media.gm.com) ### So where does TWG come in? TWG is the ownership and capital layer that made the project look more like a real team build and less like a campaign. By 2024 and 2025, the effort had been reorganized around TWG Motorsports and GM, with TWG bringing its broader racing portfolio and operating muscle. When Formula 1 announced agreement in principle in November 2024, it was specifically about bringing GM/Cadillac in as the 11th team. By the time final approval landed on March 7, 2025, the backing was clearly framed as TWG Motorsports plus GM. (media.gm.com) ### Why did that change the politics? Because F1 had been skeptical of a pure entrant that might add little beyond another pit garage. A manufacturer-backed team is different. It promises technology spending, brand value, and eventually its own power unit. That is basically the currency F1 cares about when it expands the grid. Cadillac’s path got easier once the project looked less like “let us race” and more like “we are bringing another major carmaker into the championship.” That last part is partly an inference, but it fits the sequence of F1’s November 2024 agreement in principle and the March 2025 final approval. (formula1.com) ### When did it become a true works project? January 2025 was the big tell. GM and TWG announced GM Performance Power Units, a new company built to create powertrains for the Cadillac F1 project. Then the FIA approved that company as an official F1 power-unit supplier starting in 2029. Until then, Cadillac is set to use Ferrari engines. But forming an engine company is the difference between renting a house and pouring your own foundation. It says the long game is real. (formula1.com) ### Why is 2026 an awkward moment to join? Because Cadillac is entering right into a full rules reset. The 2026 package brings lighter cars, active aerodynamics, 100% sustainable fuel, and a redesigned power unit with an even split between combustion and electric power. That is a huge engineering swing for everyone, not just a newcomer. And now the FIA is already tweaking the 2026 rules before the formula even starts, after meetings in April and May 2026 on further evolutionary changes. (formula1.com) ### Why does that cut both ways? A reset helps a new team because incumbents lose some of their accumulated advantage. Everybody has to relearn the car. But the catch is cost and complexity. Cadillac has to build a chassis organization, race operations, and eventually its own engine program while the technical target is still moving. That is not a quick marketing splash. It is a multi-year industrial launch timed to one of the messiest transitions F1 has attempted in a while. (fia.com) ### What is Cadillac really buying here? Cadillac is buying a seat at the top table of global motorsport and, if the engine plan holds, a direct role in F1’s next technology cycle. That gives GM a way to sell performance, software, electrification, and prestige in one place. The team may debut in 2026, but the real bet runs into the 2030s. (formula1.com) ### Bottom line? The March 2025 approval was the official green light. The groundwork was laid much earlier — first by GM attaching Cadillac to the 2023 Andretti bid, then by TWG and GM turning that bid into a manufacturer-backed build with its own future engine program. That is why Cadillac’s F1 move looks less like a sponsorship exercise and more like a long-cycle corporate project. (media.gm.com) (fia.com)