Cadillac for F1 – Jalopnik raced here

After Cadillac got the green flag to participate in Formula 1 in 2024, it became the first American constructor in F1 history. Yet it was also just the latest motorsport movement for a brand that has been closely involved in racing for years. Cadillac was even on the starting schedule in 1949 when Nascar launched his strictly sharing division, which would eventually become the current Cup series.

Two Cadillac Series 61 cars then race only a year later on Le Mans, including an adapted, re -implied version called “Le Monstre”. With a streamlined, futuristic body made by a Grumman engineer and refined in a wind tunnel, and usually stock mechanicals, Le Monstre had a top speed of 130 MPH. That was almost 15 km / h faster than the Stockbodied Le Mans Cadillac. The two Cadillacs finished in the race 10th and 11th, with Le Monstre behind the Coupé opposite pendant because of an earlier crash.

The company took a step back from racing in the following years to concentrate more on his own unique luxury brand, although the incidental Cadillac still made Motorsports News. In 1971, for example, a Cadillac Sedan de Ville completed the inaugural Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash with the highest average speed during actually driving. The cross-country Cadillac was not the first to end because it had to make more fuel stops than the winning Ferrari Daytona. That said, Cadillac has since spent a lot of time in the circle of the winner, especially in the 21st century.

In the early 2000s, Cadillac moved in a more European direction, with cars such as the CTS-V, and racing would be a way to promote the change. As Jeff Kettman, who helped the program off the ground, said, said DailySportscar.com“The whole reason that Cadillac became involved in Motorsport was to move the public perspective of Cadillac to more of a sporty vehicle.” It absolutely worked for the Longro-Dak editions, as we discovered when we looked why the CTS-V cars are still so expensive.

A highlight was supposed to be Cadillac’s new endurance program for both Le Mans and the American Le Mans Series. Unfortunately, Cadillac underestimates both the budget that was needed to win at that level and the ability of the Northstar V8 to get the job done. The best finish for the Northstar LMP racing cars from this era, which ran from 2000 to 2002, was the ninth in the last year of the competition of Cadillac.

It was a hard learning experience that had paid off when Cadillac started racing on a smaller stage with the CTS-V: the World Challenge GT Championship of the Sports Car Club of America. In four years of racing that started in 2004, Cadillac noted 12 victories, one driver’s title and two manufacturers’ championships. Wining accelerated even further after Pirelli started sponsoring the GT challenge. From 2012 to 2017, the CTS-VR and ATS-VR were responsible for five more driver championships and Cadillac helped to score three more crowns from the manufacturer.

Cadillac shifted again in 2017 on his race efforts by transferring to the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship Series, where it set cars in the Daytona Prototype International Class. The so-called DPI.VR machines achieved another seven championships and 27 extra victories in Endurance Racing, led by four consecutive victories over the Rolex 24 in Daytona.

This undoubtedly helped to convince Cadillac to test his courage at the highest level of Duurraces from 2023, the World Endurance Championship (WEC) Supervision of the same organization – the FIA – which is responsible for Formula 1. (Cadillac still competes in the IMSA WeatherTech series too).

This time things have improved a little better for the Le Mans aspirations of Cadillac, because the brand finished third and fourth during the Race 2023 and locked the first row to qualify this year – despite the fifth and eighth in the actual race.

However, it looked like a small bump on the track for Cadillac. In the next event on the WEC calendar, the Rolex 6 hours from Sao Paulo, Cadillac became the first American manufacturer to record a 1-2 finish in the Hypercar class at the highest level. It is no wonder that people are now so hyped about the entry of Cadillac in Formula 1.