The all-new Cadillac F1 team dramatically stepped up its investment well ahead of its racing debut next season.

Its annual report reveals it spent more than £46million last year, despite only officially being granted entry for the F1 2026 season in January this year.

Significant investment made before F1 entry confirmed

The Cadillac F1 team is owned by TWG Group, which is headed by Dan Towriss and appointed Graeme Lowdon as its team principal. General Motors has also come on board as both a technical partner (it is developing a power unit) and to lend its name to the operation.

Having sunk a comparatively modest £2.15million ($2.9m) on its initial start-up costs in 2023, that figure accelerated to £46.1 million ($61.9m) for the 2024 financial year.

It comes as the team worked to recruit staff and bed down new facilities, including a base at Silverstone.

Wages were a significant portion of its annual costs, with £9.8million ($13.2m) for wages, social security, and pension costs. That coincided with staff numbers rising to 88 at year end, up from 46 12 months earlier.

The Lowdon-led organisation has been ramping up towards its 2026 debut for some time, with preparations in train well before the official approval was finally given earlier this year.

It first registered its interest in joining the grid through the Expressions of Interest process opened by the FIA in 2023, where it was the only one of four submissions to progress.

However, while accepted at that point, it encountered a roadblock when Formula One Management denied the entry, then going under the Andretti Global banner.

The rejection triggered a United States Department of Justice investigation amid claims of cartel-like practices and breaches of antitrust law. That was ultimately resolved with a number of public changes, including Michael Andretti stepping aside as the figurehead of his eponymous operation, a change in name for the entry to Cadillac, and Greg Maffei’s exit from Liberty Media after 18 years. Otherwise, little had changed in terms of the project remaining funded by TWG and Towriss, with the same personnel in place behind the scenes.

Soon after Maffei’s intended departure was announced, it was confirmed that FOM and the newly renamed Cadillac F1 Team would revisit discussions allowing it entry to the grid.

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While a £46.1 million loss in 2024 was substantial, that figure is expected to grow quite dramatically in 2025 as further investments are made.

That includes the payment of a $450million (£335m) antidilution fee coupled with increased staff costs as its headcount rises sharply. There will also be machinery and other key items, not to mention the development cost incurred in creating the team’s very first car. The team has also recruited Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez as its race drivers, and recently announced Simon Pagenaud, Pietro Fittipaldi, and Charlie Eastwood as its simulator drivers.

Already, the squad has a survival cell which it has been using for stress testing purposes. It has also destroyed a number of other components as part of its crash testing. It is also set to observe a track test in the near future in an effort to foster relationships and familiarity within the team and garage well ahead of the opening round of F1 2026.

The prolonged build up and significant investment made thus far offer the Cadillac squad a strong foundation upon which to build, with no signs that the willingness to invest is slowing.

Indeed, the known costs incurred to date, which amount to the region of $500million, pale in comparison to the value the organisation will have simply by virtue of being the 11th team on the F1 grid in 2026.

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