The Cadillac F1 team is still in its infancy and is the backmarker in F1 during its rookie season, but it is trying to make strides on and off the track.
After years of having 10 teams on the F1 grid, Cadillac was finally added to the grid, marking the entrance of a true American team and car manufacturer into the pinnacle of motorsport.
However, they have been building their entire operation from the ground up.
Cadillac F1 is running on Ferrari customer engines while assembling a team of experienced staff members to accelerate progress toward a competitive car in the field.
Additionally, it has been revealed that Cadillac, which is owned by TWG Sports with General Motors, is the face and minority owner and has tapped into the other sister racing teams in IndyCar, NASCAR, etc.
What is GM helping Cadillac with?
According to an executive with Cadillac, there has been facility, racing knowledge, and cross-pollination among the different teams to help out.
“Obviously, GM’s an equity shareholder in the team, so we have vested interest in it,” Eric Warren, GM’s Vice President, said in a recent interview with Motorsport.
“Not only is the chassis named Cadillac, and it’s called Cadillac Formula 1 team, but we see it as our team. From the very beginning when we decided to get involved, we wanted to really be an integral part of it as much as we could.
“We’ve had a lot to learn, and obviously you have to be humble when you’re coming into any race series. But we didn’t just want to be a sticker. We wanted to really be a part of it. I was there from the very start when it was three people and then as it kind of grew, we looked at it and said: ‘Okay, what capabilities and gaps could we fill to get going?’
“For the first year or two, let’s be honest, we were proving to the FIA and to F1 management that this wasn’t just a small start-up team or an IndyCar team coming over here. This was truly GM being partners with TWG. So a lot of the early technical work was really building up the foundation that the team needed to be able to operate at the pace of Formula 1.”