The popular Netflix reality series “Formula 1: Drive to Survive”, which chronicles the behind the scenes drama of the racing series, debuted its seventh season on March 7, but there was even more exciting news for fans of the motorsport itself.

Formula One Management and the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile that governs it confirmed that the newly formed Cadillac Formula 1 Team has been approved to enter the series in 2026.

It has been two years since General Motors announced its intention to launch a team in what is considered the highest form of automobile racing and the path has been as winding as an F1 track.

The team was initially a collaboration between General Motors and the Andretti Global operation run by racing le gend Michael Andretti and its first application was rejected by FOM last January. Officially, FOM said it did not think the team would add value to the series, but the hubbub was that it didn’t want to work with Andretti for reasons that remain unclear.

Andretti announced that he was stepping back from day-to-day operations last October and bringing in investor TWG Motorsports, which is part of a larger holding company that has interests in the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Chelsea English Premier League soccer team and several other sports ventures.

Just weeks after the move, the team and FOM reached an agreement in principle to allow it to join the series in 2026, but the process needed some time to get through formal approvals, which have now been finalized.

Cadillac is already working on its car, which will be built to an all-new specification that the series is adopting in 2026. It will use Ferrari power units to get off the ground, but General Motors has created GM Performance Power Units to develop its own under the Cadillac name, which it hopes to have ready for 2028.

There are two types of Formula One teams. A few build their own cars and power units, like Ferrari and Mercedes-AMG, and are known as “works” teams, while “customer” teams like Williams and Aston Martin build the car chassis, but use power units they get from another company. Cadillac will become the American works team in history.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the effort put in by the entire Cadillac Formula 1 Team. This announcement is the next step in getting on the grid and continues our efforts towards building a full-works team. Through the long and thorough application process, we have never lost pace in our planning or our belief in the mission. We can’t wait to go racing and give fans a new team to cheer for,” Cadillac Formula 1 Team Principal Graeme Lowdon said in a news release.

The independent US-based Haas F1 Team has been running a customer operation since 2016, but hasn’t been able to compete for wins with the top outfits. It is nearly impossible for a small team to beat the giants of the sport, even with recent cost caps that were put in place to help level the playing field.

In Ferrari’s 2000s heyday, when it won five championships in a row with driver Michael Schumacher, there were no limits and winning teams were spending on the order of $400 million per year, but that has been restricted to $140.4 million this season.

General Motors is understood to have paid an extra $450 million buy-in fee, as its addition will dilute the commercial earnings shared across all the teams, but $140.4 million is a drop in the bucket for a company that spends more than $3 billion per year just on advertising, which is still a big part of what racing is about.

However, its crosstown rival Ford has found an arguably easier way to put the gloss of Formula One on its brand. It has teamed up with the very successful Red Bull Racing team to help build its power units, which will wear Red Bull Ford Powertrains branding starting in 2026.

With four-time defending Formula One champion Max Verstappen secured with Red Bull until 2028, Ford may have found a way to cut the line to victory lane, assuming the new car and power units live up to the team’s reputation.

An all-new car design like the one coming in 2026 often results in a shakeup of the pecking order, but with Formula One’s overall revenue up 11 percent to a record $3.6 billion in 2024, it looks like everyone will be a winner in one way or another.