General Motors will become an official Formula One power unit supplier in 2029, the sport’s world governing body said on Wednesday.
GM Performance Power Units has been formed by TWG Motorsports and General Motors to power the new Cadillac team that will debut next season as the 11th constructor on the starting grid.
Cadillac will use Ferrari units until the GM engines are available.
“With this approval from the FIA, we will continue to accelerate our efforts to bring an American-built F1 power unit to the grid,” said GM Performance Power Units CEO Russ O’Blenes in a statement.
The company plans to open a dedicated facility near Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2026.
The selection of 2029 is potentially significant, with the sport entering a new engine era next year with a 50/50 split between combustion and electric that would normally run to the end of 2030.
It would make little financial sense to design a hugely expensive power unit that might only have a two-year shelf life but the sport could bring back V8 or V10 engines before 2030 -- with 2029 mooted as a possibility.
The FIA said this month that teams and manufacturers were committed to the 2026 rules but would continue discussion on future regulations.
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is keen on reducing engine costs and a supporter of bringing back naturally-aspirated V8 or V10 engines, running on fully sustainable fuel, whose noise is missed by many.
The Emirati has suggested 2029 as a date for this to happen, although some manufacturers have been markedly less enthusiastic.
Despite the declared commitment to the 2026 engine, a Formula One commission meeting on Thursday will discuss tweaks to address fears that next year’s cars might run out of energy during some races at power circuits like Monza.
That could see the electric element reduced for races, but kept the same for qualifying.
“Reading the agenda of the F1 commission is almost as hilarious as reading some of the comments that I see on Twitter on American politics,” commented an unhappy Mercedes boss Toto Wolff when asked about it in Jeddah at the weekend.
“I really want to protect ourselves and make no comment -- but it’s a joke. A week ago there’s an engine meeting and (then) things like this end up on the agenda again.”
McLaren principal Andrea Stella, whose team are the reigning champions with Mercedes engines, was less concerned.
“It’s the responsibility of all the stakeholders to make sure that the 2026 regulations are successful,” he told reporters on Sunday.
“There’s no point in teams competing with each other if we don’t have a good sport and the quality of the sport... is a function of the product from a chassis and power unit point of view.
“So I think keeping the conversation open such that we really go into the details -- considering overtaking, power deployment, power harvesting - everything that determines the quality of the product... we should look into that and we shouldn’t say it’s frozen.”
Source: Reuters
--Agencies
