RACING LINES
Damien Smith
Cadillac’s entry will coincide with new car and engine regulations
A Cadillac Formula 1 car: sounds like an automotive oxymoron if ever there was one, doesn’t it? But it’s a proposal that’s edging closer to solid carbonfibre reality for 2026, when General Motors plans to waft the US’s best-known luxury car brand on to the grand prix grids – at the exact same moment that its traditional blue-collar, all-American rival Ford returns too. That’s the power of F1 and its still-blooming, Netflixfuelled Stateside expansion right there.
FORD AND RED BULL
Ford’s comeback could be described uncharitably as a cautious case of toe-dipping. Its Blue Oval will be proudly emblazoned on Red Bull’s F1 cars, but just how much influence will Ford’s engineers really have on – and take from – what is developed and built by its new partner’s new powertrain division in Milton Keynes? Cynics might claim it’s little more than a badging exercise, although there’s a parallel to F1’s most successful engine: Ford paid the best £100,000 it ever spent for the DFV V8 to be created in 1967, but it was a Cosworth engine.