Cadillac to leverage US identity to grow F1 sponsorship portfolio
Formula 1 newcomers Cadillac are harnessing their status as the only “truly” American team to power their sponsorship strategy ahead of the season opener this weekend.
Cadillac will be the 11th team on the grid after General Motors and Chelsea co-owner Mark Walter’s TWG paid a reported $450m anti-prize money dilution fee to expand the roster beyond 10 teams for the first time in a decade.
And their team principal, Brit Graeme Lowdon, has stated that their all-American identity is key for commercial success despite not actively seeking a title partner.
“I genuinely think we’re offering something different, we are truly an American team,” Lowdon told Morning Wire. “We’re investing heavily in the US and in Indianapolis with manufacturing facilities.
“But this mix of partners who have found our proposition attractive; a lot of them are iconic American brands who perhaps haven’t been, in some instances, interested in Formula 1 before.
“They’re obviously seeing something a little bit different, a little bit new and that’s very much what we want to try and bring.
“The fact that a lot of the brands who we’re currently engaged with and talking to are new to Formula 1, demonstrates that we were right when we said that we were going to bring something new.”
Cadillac on the grid
Cadillac signed TWG AI – a sister company of TWG motorsports – as a primary sponsor ahead of this weekend’s season opener in Australia, while US firms Jim Beam and Tommy Hilfiger were early backers.
Mexican driver Sergio Perez was seen as key to onboarding telecoms company America Movil, while IFS, Tenneco and Core Scientific add technology and infrastructure to the fray.
Lowdon – formerly of Virgin Racing and Marussia Formula 1 – stated that the firm was talking to multiple sectors about deals, “from financial services to technology to consumer brands”.
This season will see major regulation changes in Formula 1, with Ferrari looking to have benefitted the most from the new rules and Aston Martin the least.
Cadillac aren’t expected to challenge for the title in their first season but Lowdon stated success will be measured in how well the team – much of which has come from others on the grid – executes.
“If you view a team as a machine that needs to develop constantly,” he added at the Autosport Business Exchange London, “what we’re looking at is how do we create an entity that can constantly develop, constantly move forward, and at a faster rate than others.
“Because if we do that then irrelevant of where we start we will ultimately reach the sort of competitive goals that we would like to.”