Cadillac is set to make its grand entrance into Formula 1 in 2026, but it didn’t come cheap. To become the eleventh team on the grid, Cadillac has had to shell out a staggering fee, totaling hundreds of millions.
According to insider whispers in the Melbourne paddock right before the Australian Grand Prix, Cadillac has forked over about $450 million. This substantial sum isn’t pocketed by just one entity; instead, it’s spread out equally among the current 10 teams.
What Cadillac has paid is known as the anti-dilution fee, a concept introduced into F1’s commercial landscape with the 2021 Concorde Agreement. Initially, the agreement pegged this fee at $200 million. This amount would be given to the existing teams to offset any potential loss of prize money, now that the pie is being split one more way, turning the table from ten to eleven slices.
However, the teams have since voiced that this $200 million figure doesn’t quite measure up, considering that each team’s valuation has skyrocketed, with many sitting in the hundreds of millions, if not billions.
With the current Concorde Agreement due to wrap up by the end of 2025, fresh negotiations are heating up between teams and FOM. They’re preparing a new framework to span five years from 2026. By then, Cadillac will initially step in as a Ferrari customer team, with General Motors planning to roll out their own power unit starting in 2028.
Cadillac’s journey to F1 began in January 2023. It all kicked off when the FIA debuted its ‘Expression of Interest’ initiative, prompting Andretti to team up with GM and Cadillac as their engine partner. Despite a smooth sail through FIA evaluations, FOM poured cold water on the deal later in 2023. However, they left a crack open for GM’s involvement. By mid-2024, with Michael Andretti stepping back, business partner Dan Towriss took the reins.
Fast forward to the end of 2024, Cadillac was granted initial entry, but the ultimate go-ahead came on March 7th. By this time, the team had already placed former Manor boss Graeme Lowdon at the helm as team principal.
Adding to their ranks, they’ve brought in Nick Chester, former Renault chief, as technical director. Joining them too is Pat Symonds, an erstwhile engineer with stints at Benetton, Renault, and Williams, who takes on an executive role in technical consultancy.
