The British talent behind all-American Cadillac

There is a Stars and Stripes hanging in the factory of Cadillac F1 – a none too subtle hint as to how the 11th team on the Formula 1 grid wants to project itself. Yes, the factory is based in Silverstone and it’s using a wind tunnel in Cologne, and its engine is from Maranello, but speak to key personnel, as Marcus Simmons did for our cover story this month, and it is keen to stress its US connection: it is all-American.

That insistence will carry more weight in the years ahead as the new GM engine comes online from 2029 and reserve driver Colton Herta’s planned graduation to the full team plays out, but for now the accents heard around the UK base are more Midlands than Midwest.

“If you want to make a go of it in F1, British talent is a prerequisite”

So, while we celebrate another name joining F1 and the implied growth in popularity of the sport in America, we should also acknowledge Britain’s unique position in racing too: if you want to make a go of it in F1, British talent, apparently, is a prerequisite.

It is not every day that a new constructor joins the F1 circus – the last one was Haas a decade ago – and Marcus spent the day with the drivers and the team to get an idea of how you actually go about building a modern F1 outfit. The impression you get is of a group well aware of the challenge ahead and realistic about how success should be measured. As Valtteri Bottas candidly says: “The main thing is to get a reliable car to start with and finish the races, and try not to be last, and that’s already a starting point. It’s not that much about where we start, it is where we end up, and that’s the motivation for everyone.”

If Cadillac manages that, I suspect it won’t matter which flag it competes under – it’ll be celebrating as hard in Motorsport Valley as in the team’s other base in Indianapolis.

A win may be fanciful but if Cadillac manages this feat, it will become only the third team holding an American racing licence to do so after All American Racers and Team Penske, for whom John Watson famously won the 1976 Austrian GP. I was reminded of the latter when reading Andrew Frankel’s column this month in which he points out how underrated Watson is. He lists his achievements: five grand prix wins and the record for winning a race from furthest back on the grid – from P22 in Long Beach in 1983.

I couldn’t agree more and Roger Penske thinks so too. When I interviewed the Captain a couple of years ago I asked him who was the most underrated driver he’d worked with and he didn’t hesitate: Wattie, by a mile.

Joe Dunn, editor
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