Cadillac credits GM hub for fast F1 launch

Cadillac says its 2026 Formula 1 entry would not have reached the grid in time without General Motors’ Charlotte Technical Center, with the team relying on GM’s simulators, software and engineering support to accelerate a build-up that began long before its first race.

That mattered because Cadillac was trying to assemble a new F1 team across continents on a compressed schedule for the season opener in Australia in early March, with many staff hired before the project was fully confirmed and with its Silverstone infrastructure still not fully ready. Rather than waiting for every piece of its own operation to come online, Cadillac leaned on capability GM already had in place.

The key site was GM’s Charlotte Technical Center in Concord, North Carolina, which opened in 2022 on the Hendrick Motorsports campus. The facility already had driver-in-the-loop simulators as well as aerodynamic and suspension analysis tools, giving Cadillac immediate access to hardware and know-how that a startup team would otherwise have had to build from scratch.

Senior engineering consultant Pat Symonds said that support was decisive. “We would genuinely not be here if we hadn't had that GM facility in Charlotte last year,” Symonds said. He added that Cadillac used the simulator “as if it was a racing car,” calling the work “invaluable” in getting the team race-ready.

Cadillac’s preparation centered on a Race Ready program that effectively treated the squad as a virtual 11th entrant during the 2025 season. The team simulated multiple grands prix in real time, rehearsing strategy calls, pit operations, data processing and engineering coordination before it ever had to do those jobs for real on an F1 weekend.

That effort also gave Cadillac a way to build working relationships inside a new organization. Simulator drivers Simon Pagenaud, Pietro Fittipaldi and Charlie Eastwood were used in North Carolina while the race team sharpened procedures and decision-making through repeated practice runs.

For GM, the project was never framed as simple branding support. Eric Warren, GM Vice President of Global Motorsports Competition, said the manufacturer viewed the entry as its own program because it was invested directly in the team. “Obviously, GM's an equity shareholder in the team, so we have vested interest in it... we see it as our team,” Warren said.

He said Cadillac’s early work was also about convincing both the FIA and Formula 1 management that the bid had genuine manufacturer backing. The aim, he said, was to show this was “truly GM being partners with TWG,” not “a small start-up team or an IndyCar team coming over here.”

That distinction helps explain why Cadillac was able to move unusually quickly toward a 2026 debut. The team was still building itself from scratch, but GM’s established engineering infrastructure meant it did not have to start from zero, and the Charlotte simulation program became the bridge between an incomplete factory setup and a race-ready F1 operation.