SUZUKA, JAPAN - MARCH 27: Valtteri Bottas driving the (77) Cadillac F1 Team MAC-26 Ferrari on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Japan at Suzuka Circuit on March 27, 2026 in Suzuka, Japan. (Photo by Michael Potts/LAT Images)

LAT Images

General Motors Co., in its early days as a Formula One competitor, says its production vehicles will benefit through its engineering efforts with the global racing series.

“GM really wants to race,” Eric Warren, the company’s vice president of global motorsports competition, said in an interview. “We’re not just about sponsorship. It’s a long effort.”

FIA and Formula One Management in March 2025 said that GM and its its partner TWG Motorsports met “requirements to join the existing 10 teams starting” in 2026.

The new F1 team is branded as Cadillac, GM’s luxury brand. It ‘s the first new F1 team since 2016. Each F1 team has two racing cars.

Racing series where GM competes have different characteristics. F1, Warren said, is a “technical meritocracy.” F1 teams “develop a car on an ongoing basis…The scope of development is really large.”

The automaker says its involvement with F1 will show up in production vehicles.

“Motorsports compresses years of learning into weeks,” Ken Morris, senior vice president, product programs, product safety, integration and Motorsports, said in a statement.

"It’s a real-world stress test for hardware and software at the extreme ends of use cases. We can review how components hold up, how systems communicate, and how we recover when conditions change. That’s the kind of learning that helps us deliver better vehicles, faster, with more confidence.”

GM this weekend will make its fourth F1 appearance. F1 so far this year held three races in Australia and Asia.

The series will conduct a race in Miami, the first of three U.S. F1 events this year. The others will be at Austin, Texas, in October and Las Vegas in November. The Miami F1 race is the first since March. Races in the Middle East scheduled for April were canceled because of the U.S.-Iran war.

For now, the Cadillac team is using race engines supplied by Ferrari. GM is looking to produce F1 engines by the end of this decade.

The automaker is joining F1 as the global series is implementing new rules for tires, engines and aerodynamics. F1 cars are utilizing internal combustion and electric power roughly equally. Competitors have to be careful not to drain their electric power too quickly before decelerating.

Warren said GM’s experience has been so far, so good despite not contending for wins.

He said there is “early excitement building around the Cadillac worldwide. All indications are there is a fan base wanting a true American team.”

The GM F1 effort involves facilities in Silverstone, England; Indianapolis; Concord, North Carolina, outside of Charlotte; and Warren, Michigan, outside of Detroit.

GM rival Ford Motor Co. also is participating in F1 this year. The company has a technical partnership with the Oracle Red Bull team.

Ford once fielded its own F1 team with the Jaguar brand. The automaker exited F1 in the 2000s amid financial challenges to its core business. That F1 operation became the Red Bull team. Ford sold Jaguar in 2008 to Tata Motors.