Cadillac’s all-American F1 challenge outlined as ‘centre of gravity’ to move Stateside

Cadillac’s Pat Symonds has opened up on the challenge of trying to create the first all-American-built F1 race winner of the modern era.

Just two American-licenced F1 constructors have ever won a race in Formula 1, but the new Cadillac team is hoping to add to that statistic over the coming years.

Pat Symonds explains how ‘centre of gravity’ will shift for Cadillac

What started life as an Andretti-operated F1 team when Michael Andretti first lodged an expression of interest for a potential arrival onto the grid has evolved to become a General Motors-backed Cadillac factory team.

Arriving on the grid in 2026, Cadillac will be run by team boss Graeme Lowdon and CEO Dan Towriss, whose TWG Motorsports operation will run the team on behalf of General Motors.

Initially, the Cadillac F1 team will be a Ferrari customer team and run with power units out of Maranello, but the intent is to become a power unit manufacturer in its own right by 2029, creating a fully autonomous General Motors team in Formula 1.

To get the team off the ground, Cadillac will operate from several different facilities. Currently, the team operates out of GM facilities in Fishers, Indiana, where a brand-new facility is being built for manufacturing.

Separately, the power unit programme is being built into a brand-new facility near Charlotte, Concord, North Carolina, while GM’s technical centre in Warren, Michigan, will also play a part in helping the team get off the ground.

In Europe, Cadillac will use Toyota’s wind tunnel facility in Cologne, Germany, after agreeing a long-term rental contract with the Japanese manufacturer, while some key manufacturing and logistics will take place at a recently-acquired facility in an industrial park near Silverstone in the UK.

But the plan, explained by Cadillac executive engineering consultant Pat Symonds, is for the team to operate almost entirely out of its United States facilities within a few years

“We, of necessity, are building it out of the UK. It’s where a lot of the sort of skill base is,” Symonds explained on the Autocar podcast.

“The centre of gravity at the moment is Silverstone, certainly for chassis and for racing.

“The centre of gravity for the power unit, because we’re doing our own power unit for 2029, is in Charlotte in North Carolina. So we’re building a new factory there and, at the moment, working out of GM facilities.

“We also have assistance from GM in Charlotte, who are doing, for example, our software; our simulator is based there, tyre science and things like that are based there. Then we’re building an enormous factory just outside Indianapolis, 420,000 square feet, huge. That number sounds big, but when you actually go and look at it, you realise how big it is.

“The first time I went over there, I just couldn’t believe the size.”

F1’s history counts against Cadillac, where America has yet to achieve any significant success. Aside from the Indianapolis 500, which featured on the F1 calendar through the 1950s despite a widespread lack of participation from the usual championship entrants, just two American-licenced constructors have ever won a grand prix.

The 1976 Austrian Grand Prix was won by John Watson in a Penske, while the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix was won by Dan Gurney’s Anglo American Racers.

While Penske’s win was under an American flag, the cars were built in Dorset in the UK, meaning Gurney’s Eagle is the only American-built F1 car to have ever won a race.

Symonds explained that, within a few years, the intent is for almost all key manufacturing of Cadillac’s F1 cars will happen out of its United States bases.

This differentiates the squad from fellow American team Haas, which arrived on the grid in 2016. Gene Haas’ eponymous team does have a base in Kannapolis, North Carolina, but its own manufacturing takes place predominantly at a base in Banbury in the UK, while the chassis is manufactured by Italy’s Dallara, and the power units are supplied by Ferrari.

“It’ll be more than an attempt, it’ll be a reality,” Symonds said of the switch to a focus on American engineering and manufacturing.

“The idea is to transition everything to the States. So, for example, a new simulator is going into the Indianapolis building.

“Indianapolis will be doing most of the production that, at the moment, is in the sort of European supply chain. That will all move over to America, relatively soon. It’s exciting. It’s difficult. It’s a challenge.

“There’s a big difference now, you know? Formula 1 in America is big, and it wasn’t. Our idea is to make Fishers, which is the place just outside Indianapolis where we’re building the big factory, we want to make it a destination.

“So it’ll be more than just a factory. It will be somewhere for F1 fans in North America to go. We’ve got a huge amount of land there. We bought the hotel next to the factory and things like that.

“What we will leave in Silverstone… the idea is the concept design will remain in the UK for a fair while. What we have termed our rapid response manufacturing, so things like front wings and floors that you’re changing race to race, we’ll probably leave that in the UK.

“Manufacturing, we will move to America reasonably soon, always keeping a capability in the UK, and then, over a period of time, we’ll start transitioning other parts.

“So I guess our next big decision is the wind tunnel, and to me, it only makes sense to build the wind tunnel in America.

“Now, at the moment, we’re using a wind tunnel in Germany. So, to me, the difference between going to Germany and going to America for wind tunnel testing is not actually a big deal.

“If you’re running a remote wind tunnel, you have to have a mission control, just like we do for races. So it doesn’t matter whether it’s in Germany or whether it’s in America, and actually, the manufacturing will be in America.

“So in some ways, it’s easier. Electricity, these things use a lot of electricity, and electricity is about a third of the price in the USA than it is in the UK. And that goes under the cost cap!”

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With the podcast being recorded in late 2025, Symonds confirmed that recruitment to Cadillac’s British operations didn’t quite hit the targets the team had set out, revealing a key difference between the UK and US operations that has resulted in a slower workforce assembly.

“We have quite a few Americans in our team in the UK, which is quite nice to see. In fact, we’ve got all nationalities, as most F1 teams,” he said, when asked about the number of Americans now involved in the operation.

“We haven’t hit our recruitment targets yet because, in Europe and in the UK, it’s really difficult with these long notice periods that everyone is on.

“Funnily enough, America is really different. They’re very short notice periods. So we’re hiring commercial and stuff like that in America quite rapidly.

“But in the UK we’re building up. We won’t have hit our end-of-year target, but we won’t be far short of it.”

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