Christian Horner is looking forward to the arrival of the Cadillac team, and parent company General Motors, on the Formula 1 grid. According to the Red Bull team boss, the entry of the American car company aptly demonstrates the ‘global appeal of Formula 1’. Horner also reveals that the arrival of General Motors came with an ‘early Christmas bonus’ for the other teams.
In early March, the FOM and the FIA officially announced that Cadillac will definitively be on the grid from 2026. A preliminary agreement was reached between Formula 1 and General Motors, Cadillac’s parent company, in November, but the project officially got the green light in March.
Although there was some resistance to an eleventh team in the past, when the team was still trying to enter F1 under the Andretti banner, the team bosses now see the advantage of a ‘big brand’ like General Motors on the grid. “If it was anyone other than General Motors (GM), we probably would have had more trouble,” admits Christian Horner. “The prospect of GM taking on Ford is very appealing.”
Early Christmas Bonus
One of the stumbling blocks on the way to Cadillac’s participation was the prize money. With an eleventh team on the grid, the money would also have to be divided among eleven teams, instead of ten. General Motors ultimately paid more entry fee, an ‘anti-dilution amount’ of 450 million dollars, to compensate for this. “We all got an early Christmas bonus as part of their entry fee,” Horner also confirms.
The Red Bull team boss is therefore now mainly enthusiastic about the entry of General Motors and Cadillac. “The fact that a big brand like GM is coming into the sport is positive. It shows the appeal of Formula 1,” says Horner. “It would probably have been unthinkable five or six years ago that a brand like Ford Motor Company or GM would come into Formula 1. I think it demonstrates the global appeal of Formula 1 that these big American brands are making their entry.”
