General Motors opens Cadillac F1 engine factory in Charlotte on 18 December

General Motors will open its Formula 1 engine factory in Charlotte, North Carolina, on 18 December, GM president Mark Reuss announced at the Autosport Business Exchange conference in New York. The facility marks a concrete step toward the manufacturer’s FIA-approved entry as a power unit supplier from the 2029 season onwards.

“We’re opening our whole engine factory, if you will, in Charlotte, North Carolina on 18 December,” Reuss said. “So that’s coming really well.”

The timeline, however, carries an inherent complication. FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has committed to Formula 1 switching back to V8 engines — potentially running on sustainable fuel with a reduced electric component — by 2031. If that schedule holds, GM’s bespoke power unit would have at most two seasons of competition before a regulation change, and potentially just one if the switch is brought forward to 2030.

On the grid, Cadillac is currently running customer Ferrari power units in its debut season, and the team’s results have been difficult. It remains the only constructor yet to score a point in 2026, and the MAC-26 has qualified slowest of all at each of the last four rounds.

Reuss was candid about the scale of the challenge but framed the situation as a process rather than a crisis. “You know, we’re not here to finish last, so we’ve got to follow through and build this team, build the powertrain and build the car, like we did in GTP,” he said. “That takes a little more time here, because this is a place where we’ve never raced. You’ve got to get the right people with the right engineers and the right drivers, and we’ve got to get that process really going, and it’s logarithmic, it’s not linear.”

Drivers Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas — both veterans brought in for their experience — have been recording some of the worst results of their respective careers. Reuss acknowledged their patience with the project and praised their professionalism. “Both of these gentlemen in the race for us do that, and they really understand what it takes and the process. I’m very, very happy that they’re patient with us, to be honest; that takes a special person.”

With the Charlotte factory set to open before Christmas, GM now has roughly two years to design and develop a competitive power unit — a compressed window by any measure in Formula 1’s engineering landscape.