It's hammer time

August 29, 2025Newsletter Archives

It’s now been nine months since General Motors announced a partnership with TWG Motorsports to bring a Cadillac Formula One team to the grid for the 2026 racing season. The Cadillac team will be the first new team to join the F1 circuit since 2016, increasing the total number of teams to 11.

There has been a flurry of news about the team since that initial launch, but none bigger than this week’s announcement of the first two drivers for the team: the Mexican driver Sergio “Checo” Perez, and the Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas.

Both men have deep experience and a history of success on the track. Perez made his F1 debut in 2011, and has since run 281 races, with 6 wins, finishing second overall in the F1 world championship 2023. Bottas, who celebrated his 36th birthday on Thursday, has run 246 F1 races since his 2013 rookie season, with 10 wins and two second-place world championship finishes in both 2019 and 2020.

“Signing two very experienced racers like Bottas and Checo is a bold signal of intent,” Team Principal Graeme Lowdon said in making the announcement. “They’ve seen it all and they know what it takes to succeed in Formula 1. But more importantly, they understand what it means to help build a team. Their leadership, feedback, race-hardened instincts and of course their speed will be invaluable as we bring this team to life.”

GM News had a chance to ask Perez a few questions in an exclusive interview about the announcement that he’s joined the Cadillac team.

“If you think about how big the organizations are in F1, and how long it takes them to build, it’s quite a challenge,” Perez said, when asked about the challenges the Cadillac team will face in its first year on the grid. “But I believe we’ve got very experienced people with a lot of track record, with a lot of abilities in this sport. I really believe that Cadillac can definitely be a surprise as an example of a newcomer in the sport.”

-- Eric J. Savitz, Editor-in-Chief, GM News