Cadillac plans to move into a new facility in Concord, North Carolina in 2027 to build its Formula 1 engines, government documents revealed.
The General Motors brand has an agreement in principle to join the Formula 1 field next year. Cadillac has a contract to use Ferrari power units in its first season but intends to begin using its own hybrid motors in 2028.The details of the manufacturer’s plans for its facilities were revealed in the agenda of a forthcoming meeting of Concord city council. Cadillac intends to begin construction of its new facility this year and move into it at the beginning of 2027.
“Motorsport IP Acquisition […] proposes to develop a site to support the development of the power unit (engine) for the Cadillac F1 vehicle,” the council agenda states. “This project aims to design and test a state-of-the-art engine capable of meeting Formula 1’s rigorous performance and efficiency standards.
“With an ambitious timeline, the goal is to have the engine ready for integration into a vehicle by 2028, ensuring Cadillac’s competitive debut in Formula 1. It is anticipated that construction would commence in the first quarter of 2025, with occupancy in the first quarter of 2027.”
Cadillac has already begun work on its first F1 power unit. The project is headed by Russ O’Blenes, CEO of GM Performance Power Units.
The council noted the manufacturer intends to invest up to $85 million (£68.75m) in the property. It will consider whether to provide a grant of almost $750,000.
The city expects Cadillac’s F1 project will generate hundreds of high-paying jobs. “The project would involve significant investment in new manufacturing, R&D and information technology equipment, and the hiring of 300 to 350 highly skilled employees in manufacturing, engineering, and research and development with an average wage of $100,000 to $125,000 per year,” it noted.
“In order to facilitate an accelerated project timeline and the need to construct a new facility in North Carolina to accommodate the project, it is anticipated that initial operations will occur at an existing General Motors facility in Concord, NC located at 4540 Fortune Way NW, until the new facility at 4295 Defender Way is constructed.”
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Coventry Climax
11th February 2025, 12:10
Concord, of all names and places.
Anyway, it sounds like a plan. Let’s hope it all gets executed as well.
Whether there’ll be a ‘competitive debut’ is quite another matter.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
11th February 2025, 12:34
What do you mean by that second part? Ypu don’t think they’ll build their own engines as they promised to do “by the end of the decade”?
Coventry Climax
11th February 2025, 13:41
The plans mentioned involve more than just building the engines, but even so, promises only turn out to have been kept once they have indeed been kept. That’s especially true in F1 and also with how the world looks these days: e.g. all steel and alumINIUm entering the US is taxed an extra 25% now, and that’s just one example of how uncertain things currently are.
On the other hand, the motor regulation is more and more of a build manual instead of a regulation, thanks to the FiA. So shouldn’t be too hard. A competitive debut however, also depends on more than just the power plant alone.
Look, I welcome them, and have been in favor of them coming right from the start.
So basically, thanks for the info, sounds like a plan, but just keep expectations realistic and show things on track please.
ADUB SMALLBLOCK (@waptraveler)
11th February 2025, 14:34
To be clear, the UK also imposes a tariff of 25% on imported steel. I don’t know about aluminum.
Coventry Climax
11th February 2025, 15:32
It’s not about what was, but about what is about to be, as the definition of change and uncertainty.
Apart from that, these protectionist import tariffs can’t be good among what used to be allies.
SteveP
11th February 2025, 19:22
What is that stuff anyway? Heard about it, but what is it?
BTW. I think Coventry Climax and I are reasonably familiar with the lightweight metal called Aluminium
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
12th February 2025, 13:57
@waptraveler Just looked this up, and the UK steel tariff is at least targeted. It is a 25% tariff on certain types of steel, above a certain quota. The US tariffs apply to all steel imports with no exceptions or exemptions. Also, it’s worth noting that the UK originally entered into these tariffs when it was part of EU, in response to the US’ steel tariffs imposed by the first Trump administration. I didn’t find anything on a UK tariff on aluminium, so I presume there isn’t one.
anon
11th February 2025, 21:58
Coventry Climax, whilst you seem to want to make something of a nationalistic point by using the British spelling for aluminium, the term “aluminum” was also coined by the British (to be precise, Sir Humphry Davy proposed it as the name of the metal in 1812, which is only a year after the term “aluminium” was coined and thus means the two names are equally etymologically valid).
SteveP, I think that the reason why you’re a bit confused over the timelines is you seem to have misread the original statements and have therefore misunderstood the situation.
When you look at the statements that Michael Andretti made in 2023, he didn’t actually claim that they would be entering in 2026 with a Cadillac engine. It was the chassis and not the engine that Michael claimed would be ready by 2026 – in fact, he stated multiple times that the plan was always to use a third party engine supplier for the first few years, with the plan being for Cadillac to then start supplying the team from 2028.
To that end, Renault confirmed that Michael had signed a pre-contractual agreement for a customer engine deal, which would have covered them for 2026 and 2027. As it was, that pre-contract expired because the Andretti’s didn’t get their entry confirmed in time, which is why they subsequently struck a deal with Ferrari for engines instead – but Renault’s statement confirmed what Michael had said in the first place.
Meanwhile, General Motors confirmed in a public statement in November 2023 that they would be producing engines for Formula 1 under the Cadillac brand, and confirmed that they were planning to supply the Andretti entry from 2028 onwards. That date of 2028 was therefore confirmed 15 months ago and has been confirmed multiple times since then, so there is no contradiction in the plans.
As to the timelines, I think you are also getting somewhat confused between the production phases and the design phases. If Cadillac were to have begun designing their engines at the end of 2023 – in reality, I would expect that development work had begun a little earlier and was only announced in November 2023 – then there would be a gap of four years between starting development and fitting the finished engine to a car.
When you look at the other engine manufacturers, that’s actually roughly the same period of time that they are also looking at. Audi is the obvious comparison, given they are also a new engine manufacturer, and their plans are also rather similar – they have publicly stated that development work on their engines began in spring 2022, and whilst they were using their existing facility at Neuburg an der Donau, they confirmed that they would need to expand that factory to scale up their production capabilities, with the planned expansion planned to finish in early 2024.
That programme for Audi means there will be four years between starting engine development and the engines making their debut in 2026, which is a very similar timeframe to Cadillac (if anything, Audi’s programme is slightly tighter than Cadillac’s programme is). Similarly, both companies are also having to redevelop their factories to be capable of producing the engines, but plan to use existing facilities for the interim development work whilst expanding those facilities – there are a number of parallels between Audi and GM in their plans, and yet Audi’s plan isn’t being written off as impractical or unrealistic.
SteveP
11th February 2025, 19:01
I await developments, but part of me does question how the two sets of info we’ve been fed could every marry up.
Andretti Jr. said they would have a PU for 2026/27 because Cadillac already had things started.
12 months on GM say “In order to facilitate an accelerated project timeline and the need to construct a new facility in North Carolina to accommodate the project, it is anticipated that initial operations will occur at an existing General Motors facility in Concord, NC located at 4540 Fortune Way NW, until the new facility at 4295 Defender Way is constructed.”
and
“With an ambitious timeline, the goal is to have the engine ready for integration into a vehicle by 2028, ensuring Cadillac’s competitive debut in Formula 1. ”
So, it’s only just starting, and it won’t be ready until 2028 at the earliest.
Why does this feel like the motorsport version of some sort of Microsoft – Cisco vapourware?
El Pollo Loco
12th February 2025, 4:57
They actually revised their estimate to 2030. Their over optimistic estimates were probably to help secure the entry and to give them a cushion in case it takes longer than they want. Better to be able deliver early if possible and on time if it takes longer than possible. We have to remember they’ve been massively delayed by FOM’s and the teams’ efforts to prevent the entry. Other teams have been working on their new PUs for years now. Between that, the fact they don’t have an engine facility yet (only building it now) and that they have no experience in building F1 hybrid PUs, it should be no surprise they’re not going to be ready for 3-5 years. I’m surprised you think they should be ready earlier and I’m surprised you think they’re spending the thick end of a billion dollars to produce “vaporware.”
anon
12th February 2025, 7:13
Unfortunately, since the original post got stuck, I’ll have to repeat what I was trying to tell you.
SteveP, I think that the reason why you’re a bit confused over the timelines is you seem to have misread the original statements and have therefore misunderstood the situation.
When you look at the statements that Michael Andretti made in 2023, he didn’t actually claim that they would be entering in 2026 with a Cadillac engine. It was the chassis and not the engine that Michael claimed would be ready by 2026 – in fact, he stated multiple times that the plan was always to use a third party engine supplier for the first few years, with the plan being for Cadillac to then start supplying the team from 2028.
To that end, Renault confirmed that Michael had signed a pre-contractual agreement for a customer engine deal, which would have covered them for 2026 and 2027. As it was, that pre-contract expired because the Andretti’s didn’t get their entry confirmed in time, which is why they subsequently struck a deal with Ferrari for engines instead – but Renault’s statement confirmed what Michael had said in the first place.
Meanwhile, General Motors confirmed in a public statement in November 2023 that they would be producing engines for Formula 1 under the Cadillac brand, and confirmed that they were planning to supply the Andretti entry from 2028 onwards. That date of 2028 was therefore confirmed 15 months ago and has been confirmed multiple times since then, so there is no contradiction in the plans.
As to the timelines, I think you are also getting somewhat confused between the production phases and the design phases. If Cadillac were to have begun designing their engines at the end of 2023 – in reality, I would expect that development work had begun a little earlier and was only announced in November 2023 – then there would be a gap of a little over four years between starting development and fitting the finished engine to a car.
When you look at the other engine manufacturers, that’s actually roughly the same period of time that they are also looking at. Audi is the obvious comparison, given they are also a new engine manufacturer, and their plans are also rather similar – they have publicly stated that development work on their engines began in spring 2022, and whilst they were using their existing facility at Neuburg an der Donau, they confirmed that they would need to expand that factory to scale up their production capabilities, with the planned expansion planned to finish in early 2024.
That programme for Audi means there will be four years between starting engine development and the engines making their debut in 2026, which is a very similar timeframe to Cadillac (if anything, Audi’s programme is slightly tighter than Cadillac’s programme is). Similarly, both companies are also having to redevelop their factories to be capable of producing the engines, but plan to use existing facilities for the interim development work whilst expanding those facilities – there are a number of parallels between Audi and GM in their plans, and yet Audi’s plan isn’t being written off as impractical or unrealistic.
El Pollo Loco
13th February 2025, 0:49
Great post. Thanks.
MacLeod (@macleod)
12th February 2025, 8:05
And Gm can test their engines in live situations somewhere in the US in an car and the FIA will never know about it.