The Haas trap that Cadillac F1 must avoid falling victim to

As Cadillac F1 prepares to enter the pinnacle of open-wheel racing, it has a massive task ahead of it — and as it slowly brings its in-house powertrain program together, the American automaker will be using Ferrari’s engines and gearboxes.

However, a recent report from Motorsport.com?states that Cadillac will consider expanding its deal with the Scuderia to also include suspension in much the same way that Haas relied on Ferrari when it entered F1. But for Cadillac to truly meet its goals, it needs to avoid Haas’ pitfalls.

Cadillac F1 will need to move on from Ferrari quickly

A Formula 1 car consists of roughly 14,000 different parts, some larger than others, and costs a small fortune to manufacture. Incoming teams also need to consider hiring staff, furnishing headquarters, and learning how to cope with a brand new form of racing for the first time.

With such a daunting task facing Cadillac F1’s incoming team, it makes sense that the General Motors sub-brand would consider relying quite heavily on an established participant in order to get started in the sport.

Though Cadillac’s ultimate goal is to become its own power unit supplier by the end of the decade, the automaker is very aware that producing such a powerful machine will take time. As such, Caddy has opted to source its power units and gearboxes from Ferrari.

However, recent reports suggest that, faced with the task of getting an entire race team up and running, Cadillac is also considering adopting Ferrari’s suspension in order to reduce the strain of bringing a Formula 1 operation to life.

That’s a strategy that Haas F1 used to great effect back in 2016 when it joined the grid — but without careful consideration, it could do more harm than good to Cadillac’s goals.

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It’s important to note that there’s nothing wrong with Haas’ business model; even reaching the F1 grid is an impressive feat for a prospective team, and the fact that Haas has been able to function for almost a decade shows that it’s no flash in the pan.

But even Haas recognized that its reliance on Ferrari was harming its bottom line. In a conversation with media including PlanetF1.com in January, team principal Ayao Komatsu admitted that the team had decided to stick with Ferrari’s front suspension from last year rather than upgrade to the Project 677 front suspension.

“We always went with Ferrari’s latest supply — and not because that was an informed choice, because that was the safest and easiest choice,” Komatsu said, referring to the way Haas simply adopted any new components provided by the Scuderia.

But after running a series of tests, Haas engineers concluded that they’d gain more stability and greater year-on-year improvement by continuing with an evolved the front suspension it used in 2024.

The team had never made that choice in the past, perhaps because of the assumption that what Ferrari provided must be the best option — after all, Ferrari has been competing in Formula 1 for 75 years, and it certainly must have a wealth of knowledge to boot.

The strategy has been sufficient for Haas because the team’s entire goal is to race in F1,?not to become a works team, or to develop its own engines or other components.

And for Cadillac, adopting Haas’ buy-in strategy will be a smart and efficient way to simply get on the grid as GM irons out all the variables that go into building a team from the ground up.

However, because it intends to become a works team, it should strive to separate itself from Ferrari as quickly as possible — something that may be easier said than done when considering just how many tweaks and shake-ups may be necessary within Cadillac when the team actually hits the grid.

All told, Cadillac has plenty of advantages up its sleeve heading into 2026. As other teams focus on racing throughout 2025, Cadillac will be solely focused on the production of its debut car, which has already been in production for months.

It will have more wind tunnel testing than almost every other team on the grid (and that wind tunnel time will be dedicated to 2026, not to any mid-season 2025 upgrades), and though it does now have to comply with the cost cap, it doesn’t have to consider travel, logistics, or any of the day-to-day operations that comprise an active team.

All the while, General Motors will be hard at work developing its power unit — and in 2026, it can start learning how to operate as a traveling, competing race team.

With ample aid from Ferrari, the temptation to keep pushing back the Caddy PU debut will almost certainly be there. But if Cadillac aims to succeed, it will need to cut its ties with Ferrari as quickly as it can. Only then will it begin to carve out its legacy.

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