Formula 1 is getting a new team led by race legends Mario & Michael Andretti and they plan to build Cadillac powered F1 cars in a new headquarters located just north of Indianapolis in Fishers, IN. No doubt some of the testing will be at the famed Brickyard track that hosts the Indy 500.
The Indy Star is covering the story extensively there are a bunch of links in the story to related Cadillac F1 material.
The Indy Star reports --> https://www.indystar.com/story/spor...aOVlC9EZmE3qv1tYSw_aem_NJkbcxQGF45mnTH9sDPT1g
The Indy Star is covering the story extensively there are a bunch of links in the story to related Cadillac F1 material.
The Indy Star reports --> https://www.indystar.com/story/spor...aOVlC9EZmE3qv1tYSw_aem_NJkbcxQGF45mnTH9sDPT1g
'This is an American team': Cadillac F1 will build cars in Fishers headquarters
- Cadillac F1 confirmed plans to utilize the under-construction race shop in Fishers previously planned to be used by Andretti Global's IndyCar and Indy NXT teams as its new headquarters.
- Cadillac F1 will use its shop in Silverstone, U.K. to develop parts to test in its wind tunnel in Germany and turn around cars for European races.
When Mario and Michael Andretti first launched their visions of an expansion Formula 1 team via a surprise social media post, among the biggest nuggets of their plan was to build cars in Indiana. And when the pair, along with Dan Towriss and others, broke ground on a new sprawling, state-of-the-art racing facility in Fishers in December 2022, Mario plainly stated the race team headquarters would rival those of F1 legends Ferrari.
Monday, those plans were confirmed, with Graeme Lowdon, the team principal of the Cadillac Formula 1 team — the sport’s expansion team that sprouted out of the Andrettis’ long-held dreams — noting publicly for the first time that the team will use the still-under-construction race shop in Fishers as its headquarters.
Seven months ago, the building was on track to host Andretti Global’s IndyCar and Indy NXT teams, as well as the IMSA GTP program of then-Andretti-owned Wayne Taylor Racing. After a series of developments this fall and winter — from leadership changes to ownership restructuring and a greenlight from F1 decisionmakers — the 400,000 square-foot shop seated at 10010 Andretti Way, just off Victory Lane is now primed for a wholly different project.
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“Make no mistake. This is an American team that will race under the American flag,” Lowdon told reporters on a call Monday, three days after the team’s expansion proposal was formally approved by the FIA (the sport’s governing body) and FOM (its commercial rightsholder). “We’re building a very impressive facility in Fishers at the moment which is quite advanced. I’ve never been involved in a project like this.
“Make no mistake; we’ll be desperate to show it off to you when it opens. Construction work is well underway, and the external fabric of the building is complete.”
Lowdon, a longtime British racing executive, cut his teeth in the F1 world while helping launch and oversee Manor Motorsport’s expansion program that operated under a variety of names during its six years of existence (2010-15) during a chapter in the sport where the line between the haves and the have nots in Formula 1 were as stark as ever. Operating without any sort of cost cap, the series’ new teams struggled to find financial and competitive footing — symbolized in the numerous name changes to the team Lowdon ran during his six years at the helm.
In his two years aiding the Cadillac F1 project behind the scenes as an advisor before he was named team principal in December, Lowdon said he’s marveled at the stark contrast to his current team’s financial footing, preparedness and first-class facilities — symbolized in what he sees in the Fishers facility’s ongoing progress and the role it will play in the team’s launch.
As he explained, Cadillac F1’s American homebase will tackle the bulk of the team’s car manufacturing duties, with its smaller shop in Silverstone, U.K. handling car turnaround for European legs of the calendar, along with manufacturing parts for work in Toyota’s wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany that the Cadillac F1 operation is utilizing.
Lowdon was uncertain on the project’s timeline and when the team could begin working out of its Fishers headquarters. A team spokesperson had yet to follow up with the team’s plans for the shop, though Lowdon noted on the call that he expects use of the new race shop to be “phased in over a couple of months.”
Late last summer, when plans were still in place to use the Fishers facility for Andretti Global's next home, team officials told IndyStar its grand opening was penciled in for March 5. With those plans scrapped, Andretti Global will now move into IndyStar's old Pulliam Production Center on a long-term lease with property owners Industrial Realty Group, LLC. With its shop on Zionsville Road set to change hands to Arrow McLarenat the end of June, Andretti Global has targeted a late June move-in for its new Georgetown Road location.
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“It will be a headquarters with all the typical (operations) that would be at a headquarters building, in terms of admin and management,” Lowdon said. “There will be a huge amount of manufacturing done there, because as we’ve said since Day 1, this is an American team, and not instantly, but over time, we’ll be investing more and more in the manufacturing facilities there, because we want to go and race a car that’s built in America with an American engine that’s built in America. And we see no reason why that can’t be done.
“It’s going to be a state-of-the-art, world-class manufacturing facility, and we’ll also have commercial activities, partnerships, marketing, all those things. We have some really cool ideas that I’d like to tell you about, but I can’t, in terms of how we’ll use the building together with our partners. It will be, effectively, a fully functioning and capable F1 facility.”
At the moment, Lowdon said Cadillac F1 is yet to produce its first full-size F1 chassis built to the sport’s revamped 2026 regulations — a key part of the team’s development process that was initially expected to be complete by the end of 2024, but which will take two to three more weeks to complete before it undergoes a rigorous off-track testing schedule. The newest F1 team principal was adamant that Cadillac has “respected” the lengthy approval process from the FIA and FOM, one which he believes received an “unprecedented level of scrutiny,” but one which he was he believes also in turn has fully proven the team’s legitimacy.
Only now, though, can they truly operate as a traditional F1 team without any additional restrictions on testing, conversations with prospective drivers or hiring personnel while noting they’ll be working as part of an F1 team. As of early this month, Cadillac F1 has more than 300 employees split across its various properties — which include Fishers, Silverstone and General Motors’ various workshops in the suburbs of Detroit and Charlotte In plans announced earlier this year, GM and TWG Motorsports — the two partners on the Cadillac F1 project — have launched a new company, GM Performance Power Units, LLC, that will build power units for a prospective 2028 launch that will make Cadillac F1 a “full works” program. That company will operate out of a soon-to-be-built dedicated facility near GM’s Technical Center just outside Charlotte set to open in 2026.
With that, Lowdon noted the fact that the newest F1 team, co-owned by a TWG Motorsports — the racing arm of a global sports ownership group (TWG Global) that has its hands in IndyCar, NASCAR and F1 (among others) — will have bases in the central hubs for all three of those sports.
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“By far the thing that’s been the most helpful is the foundation we’ve got,” Lowdon said. “It would be incredibly difficult to bring a team in (to F1) nowadays without that kind of support, and I don’t think anyone has ever made commitments both in public statements and financial commitments to a new team with the investment that’s come in prior to our confirmation of entries.
“It’s really very, very impressive, and it’s a reflection on the commitment of the shareholders to this sport.”
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