A long-shot American dream hits the F1 grid as Cadillac debuts at the Australian GP

Cadillac driver Sergio Perez of Mexico waits in his car during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir [AP Photo]

The Andretti family dream to enter an American team in Formula 1 will finally reach the starting grid when the season begins this weekend with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

Everything about the team will look different than what Michael Andretti had envisioned. In fact, he’s not even part of the project that after nearly five years has at last come to life.

Instead, Cadillac F1 is now the property of TWG Motorsports — led by Mark Walter and Dan Towriss — and General Motors. Walter’s group is all-in on sports properties; he is the controlling owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a major stakeholder in the Los Angeles Lakers, and owns the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, a stake in Chelsea F.C., the Professional Women’s Hockey League and the Billie Jean King Cup.

Towriss has Andretti Global in IndyCar, Spire Motorsports in NASCAR, Wayne Taylor Racing in IMSA, as well as his day job as founder and CEO of financial services company Group 1001.

Along with General Motors, this group has taken a long-winding project to get to the starting grid Sunday in Australia extremely serious.

When F1 initially denied the application, they pressed on and continued working on a car and engine even without approval to join the globetrotting series considered the most popular form of motorsports in the world. “Work continues at pace,” they all said as they worked behind the scenes to gain approval.

It was stamped official exactly one year from Sunday’s season-opening race.

The team has hired Sergio “Checo” Perez of Mexico and Valtteri Bottas as the veteran drivers to build the program. It doesn’t hurt that both are extremely popular — Perez is a national hero in Mexico — and General Motors happens to sell many, many cars in that country.

“We ran into a lot of obstacles, a lot of voices telling us not just ‘no,’ but ‘never,’” said Towriss about the team’s fight to the grid. “Formula 1 is innovation on the biggest stage possible, and the U.S. didn’t really have a seat at that table. To now come in with General Motors and the Cadillac brand, that’s something we’re tremendously proud of.”

What to expect?

As the first new team on the grid in a decade — Haas, also an American team, entered F1 in 2016 — many expect Cadillac to be the worst in the series for now. Its engine isn’t ready and Cadillac will lease from Ferrari for the first two seasons.

Its first car will be called MAC-26, short for Mario Andretti Cadillac, in honor of 1978 champion Mario Andretti. He was the most recent American F1 champion and his son championed the initial bid. But when Michael Andretti couldn’t crack into the F1 club, he turned the project over to Walter and Towriss in order to see it succeed.

It cost them a $200 million anti-dilution fee to compensate existing competitors for the impact on prize money to even join the club.

The team had its initial shakedown at Silverstone in January, then participated in F1’s official preseason testing in Barcelona and Bahrain. The General Motors power unit facility is located near the technical center on Hendrick Motorsports’ campus outside Charlotte, while primary headquarters are in a facility near Silverstone and many operations run from Fishers, Indiana.

And if former IndyCar driver Colton Herta has a successul season racing in F2, he could soon be the first American driver in F1 since Logan Sargeant flamed out in 2023.

Cadillac is already billing itself as America’s team despite the decade-long existence of Haas, which has never tapped into seizing the North American market. Cadillac is fierce in its desire to be the American representation — the team debuted its 2026 livery during the Super Bowl — and getting Herta into a seat would complete the claim as the team racing under the red, white and blue banner.

“There’s definitely a national pride element to Cadillac,” said Towriss. “It feels like the right place at the right time, where Formula 1 is globally, where Cadillac is as a brand, and where the U.S. is on the world sporting stage.”

Cadillac is cool

Branding is a massive part of Cadillac’s identity and many of its ideas come from Towriss’ wife, Cassidy. She has clear ideas on how the team should look, from its suites, to its merchandise, livery, marketing and branding.

Her work with the team is real, her input valued, and she’s expected to be a part of the next season of the Netflix docudrama “Drive to Survive.”

“She’s a very studied motorsports fan. We can have marketing people come up with an idea and she’ll say, ‘Don’t do that. Benetton did that and you’ll look like idiots,’” Towriss said. “She’s also the demographic — 31-year-old female. She brings a perspective that is super valuable.”

Asked what the personality of the Cadillac is while seated in a carefully designed and decorated suite, Towriss described the American dream with a touch of edginess.

“It’s gritty and it’s bold. We didn’t come into Formula 1 to look like every other team, to copy what McLaren is doing or what Mercedes is doing,” Towriss said. “It’s a group of people, and this is going to sound cliche, but we started with big dreams, we ran into a lot of obstacles, and it was just a cacophony of no’s.

“Our ambitions are so high and we’re not even focused on other people. It wasn’t just to get there, that wasn’t the desitnation. It’s really just the beginning. We’ve come at this incredibly complex, competitive time, and we’re jumping in from a standing start. We started from nothing. We didn’t buy from an existing team. So it’s a pretty daunting challenge.”

What if Cadillac is initially terrible?

Most new teams take a decade or more to find success, some never do and others don’t even make it 10 years.

Cadillac, Towriss said, wants to win.

“If I am leading a team, that’s the tone I want to set,” he said. “If you just want to have a job with a race team, go do that someplace else. Come here because you want to build something special. Be part of it because you want to win.”

Towriss is careful not to sound arrogant or delusional but he really does not want anyone within the Cadillac program to settle for being a struggling upstart.

“In private, we’re gonna push. We’ve been very careful to not put things out that set unreasonable expectations,” Towriss said. “There’s risk in everything. You have to be willing to say, ‘This is what I want to do,’ and then go try to achieve it. We’ll be very cautious and careful what we say, but at the same time, it doesn’t mean that there’s not this insane drive, this insane push how to be fast, to go fast, how quickly can we start competing with people? Right now we are ready to go find out.” JENNA FRYER, Auto Racing Writer, MDT/AP