Cadillac is going to produce its own power plants?

The joint project of Andretti Global and Cadillac, which was announced a few days ago, will attract more attention for a long time to come, but for now, when and if the team of Michael Andretti is really ready to start the World Championship, it is not possible in all considered “factory” in some respects, as the calculation is made based on the use of customer power plants.

But it is possible that only at the initial stage.

Yesterday we mentioned the possible alliance with Honda, as General Motors already cooperates with a Japanese company in the field of electrical technologies, but it is not yet certain that Andretti’s project will continue to develop in this way in the future.

According to The Race, although Honda has announced its return to Formula 1, in reality the deadlines are running out, especially considering that the division’s former full-fledged infrastructure, which was dedicated to producing racing engines, has been partially dismantled.

It is therefore not very likely that Andretti Cadillac will bet on Honda, especially since preliminary agreements with Renault have already been mentioned more than once in the context of this project, since the French manufacturer currently has no customer teams and they are interested in possible cooperation.

However, it is quite possible that General Motors will produce its own power plants for Formula 1 in the future. The sentence of Mark Reuss, president of the American group, attracts attention: “First of all, we have concluded an agreement with the supplier of power plants, and as the project progresses, we will use our knowledge and experience to create something ourselves in the future.”

It is quite possible that there is a statement of intent in such a comment: it seems that we are talking about our own engine.

General Motors really has everything you need for this: a rich racing heritage and extensive experience, technology and resources. In particular, Chevrolet (like Honda) supplies engines for IndyCar teams, and the well-known British company Ilmor took part in its creation. Hybrid powertrains are currently being developed, which the IndyCar series plans to switch to in 2024.

At the same time, Cadillac engineers are already building such installations, but with a slightly different layout and configuration (5.5-liter V8), for the factory team, which will debut this year in the endurance racing championships on both sides of the Atlantic – WEC and IMSA.

It is quite logical to assume that the company’s strategic plans include the production of its own engines for the factory team. Although GM will only start such an extremely complex and costly project if the Andretti Cadillac team shows convincing results and progress.

Of course, there are skeptics who believe that General Motors only intends to financially support Michael Andertti’s project, and for this the Cadillac brand will appear in Formula 1, which seems to give the team the status of a factory. But if Andretti Cadillac’s World Cup bid is indeed accepted, GM will have a chance to debunk such theories, and the best way to do that is by building the team’s own engines.