Cadillac to join F1 grid from 2026 as entry approved
Cadillac F1 team approved for 2026 season with new General Motors-backed entry to join as grid's 11th outfit
General Motors' new Cadillac team gains final approval to join expanded grid from the 2026 season
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Non-American here. I've never thought of Cadillac as a particularly sporty or performance brand, but more comfort-oriented. Do I have a false impression of them?
They decided to use the Cadillac brand as their racing brand, so they also run their GTP/LMDh (Le mans/IMSA/Endurance racing) cars as Cadillacs.
They’ve also got corvettes in the GT3/GTD categories
And their hypercars were leading past weekend's WEC 10 hours race, showing race-winning pace.
...Until they crashed each other out behind a safety car lmao
No, but that’s why they have pushed into motorsports so hard. They currently sell some pretty impressive performance cars, but I’ll bet dollars to donuts that the Escalade is their top seller. They’re trying to upscale the brand by having it associated with Ferrari, Mercedes, Audi, Aston Martin, and McLaren.
It's not like Mercedes is a sportscar-focused brand either tbf
Fair, but Mercedes also has a long history of success in motorsports.
Fair
The idea of a Cadillac F1 team always seemed weird to me, but this take makes a ton of sense. I guess Cadillac seems more fitting than a Buick or GM marque, but I still think they should have gone with Chevrolet since there are / have been existing Chevy motorsport teams.
They aren't exactly "known" for sporty cars but they have some really fast stuff in their lineup.
Currently it's the CT5-V Blackwing which has a supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 spitting out a respectable 668 horsepower. Comes with a 6 speed manual standard and an optional 10 speed automatic that supposedly actually shifts pretty quickly.
I'm not a huge fan of the styling of anything they make, but I have ridden in a buddies black wing and it's got some get up and go for sure.
In addition to what the others have said, Cadillac is essentially just the brand name they run with while the team itself has been set up by Andretti (successful Indycar racing team).
As others have said they're more luxury oriented but they still do have performance models but they do have a history in sports car racing.
GM had been using them successfully for racing versions of their sedans since 2004, they have their lmdh program that's been running since like 2017, and lately they also have prototype program from 2000-02 that competed in ALMS but didn't go anywhere because the Audi R8 was to dominate at the time.