The Ford F1 team is headed back to the international open wheel racing grid thanks to a partnership with Red Bull Racing (RBR), but it won’t be the only American manufacturer in F1 competition in 2026. The Blue Oval’s crosstown rival, General Motors, will join the grid with a pair of Cadillac entries that same year with sights set on becoming a “full works” team that produces its own power units. Now, GM has announced the formation of a dedicated power unit division that will build powertrains for its race cars, putting it on a different path than Ford.
Announced on January 9th, 2025, GM Performance Power Units LLC is GM’s new F1-focused venture. It will be headed by CEO Russ O’Blenes, who has more than 30 years of motorsports experience under his belt. O’Blenes has developed powertrains for championship caliber motorsports teams, as well as production vehicles, and led development of the GM Performance and Racing Center in Pontiac, Michigan. O’Blenes and GM Performance Power Units will work closely with TWG Global, the team that will field both of the automaker’s race cars come 2026.
However, GM Performance Power Units won’t begin building engines for a few years’ time. That means the Cadillac team will source engines from Ferrari until the GM power units are approved for competition.
For comparison, Ford partnered with RBR to begin fielding race cars starting in 2026. Ford Performance head Mark Rushbrook assured open wheel racing fans that the collaboration is a “true partnership.” The Blue Oval, for its part, will contribute engine tech to the Ford F1 initiative, and expects to learn valuable lessons that will prove useful in developing tech for its street-legal production vehicles.
That said, unlike the GM project, Ford has no plans to become a “full works” team. The automaker also isn’t asking for direct oversight into the engine building process, even though the Ford F1 team’s success is critical in the long run.
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