Ford and its crosstown rival, General Motors, have long been friendly rivals both on and off the track. With The Blue Oval and Cadillac set to hit the Formula One grid in 2026, the back-and-forth has already started as Ford Performance head Mark Rushbrook took aim at Cadillac’s choice of partner, poking fun at the luxury marque for shacking up with Ferrari.
According to a report from Planet F1, Rushbrook poked fun at Cadillac for sourcing its power units from Ferrari. “Badge engineering” – that is, when automakers slap their own logo on a piece of equipment that they did not develop – is not unheard of in motorsports. In short, Ford is bringing a power unit developed in partnership with Red Bull Racing (RBR) to the grid in 2026, while Cadillac is using units developed and built by Ferrari next year.
“Cadillac will be in Formula 1 in 2026 – with Ferrari engines!” Rushbrook said. “We’re looking forward to the competition. Whether it’s Ferrari cars with Ferrari engines, Cadillac cars with Ferrari engines, or anyone else’s!”
Of course, that won’t be true for long. While GM and Cadillac penned a multiyear engine deal with Ferrari, the ultimate plan is for the automaker to become a “full works” team. GM Precision Power Units will eventually take over designing and building engines for the Cadillac F1 team, but it will take a while for that project to get off the ground.
Once that happens, ironically, GM’s F1 efforts will be handled completely in-house, separating it from Ford’s own partnership with RBR. The Blue Oval provides engine tech and parts for RBR, but it’s not considered a full works team.
RBR has already undergone some personnel changes ahead of the 2026 racing season. Team principal Christian Horner split not too long ago, but The Blue Oval holds fast, underscoring its commitment to the team no matter who’s on board. It certainly doesn’t hurt that star driver Max Verstappen fully intends on sticking around, at least through next year.
Comments
Can’t believe FORD saying something like that on the 2026 Formula 1 season. GM is getting in the full game of F-1 and using Ferrari to supply motors till there full development of a inhouse motor. On the deal with Ford and Red-Bull F-1 team, Ford is only taken over for where Hondas development team has left off and still is Red-Bull. Who wouldn’t want to have a Ferrari engine in there daily driver VROOM VROOM
Who would have thought a Ferrari with a caddie badge. GM suck
Ha ha funny funny. Ford joking with Cadillac ha ha. Let’s just pretend the real competition is Cadillac. Back in the 80′ Japanese and euro companies had 15% of the North American market, by 95′ they had 50%. Now the Detroit 3 have less than 35%. Each of the three continued to focus on the guys across the street when it was the guys across the pond that were the real threat. Ford, you keep focusing on Cadillac and vice versa for Cadillac. Let’s aim for 2090 for an American championship.