F1 must “put forward correct proposal” for Cadillac anti-dilution fee

The arrival of Cadillac as Formula 1’s 11th team in 2026 must be met with adequate compensation for dilution in prize money earnings for the existing teams, says Williams team boss James Vowles.

F1’s Concorde Agreement, which defines the prize money columns in F1, sets out an anti-dilution fee that any accepted new teams must pay to offset any loss in earnings. The current agreement puts this value at $200 million, although this expires at the end of 2025.

A new sum is yet to be formally agreed for 2026, although the teams had earlier wanted to hike the fee up to $600 million – noting the growth of F1 since the current agreement was signed.

Vowles, who had outlaid his opposition to the initial Andretti entry a year ago on the basis that it would cost Williams, said that he was always in support of General Motors and Cadillac entering F1 – and added that it was now up to the championship’s commercial rights holder FOM to adequately mitigate any financial impact.

“To have a major OEM like GM joining us, I think it’s just a sign of the growth, a sign of where Formula 1 is going,” Vowles said.

“I don’t think there’s actually any defined amount of dilution fee. That’s a part of the 2026 Concorde Agreement, which hasn’t been ratified at this point. 

“What I’ve said all the way through is it will have financial loss for existing teams. What we have to do now is grow the sport sufficiently and FOM need to be aware of that in order to make things good for everyone.

“It’s down to them to put forward a correct proposal.”

RB team principal Laurent Mekies agreed with Vowles’ assessment, adding that GM’s addition to the grid expands on F1’s “battle of giants” with another manufacturer entity.

He hopes that the discussion over the correct remuneration for teams will ultimately become a small footnote in F1’s growth.

“It’s a fantastic sign for the sport; it’s going to be pretty much all car manufacturers probably except for Williams and us – even Haas is also linked to a car manufacturer now,” he said.

“[F1 is] a battle of giants, and it’s another sign that the sport is going towards that direction of a battle of giants.

“Details of the financials, they are still under discussions and hopefully they become small in the big picture of where the sport can go for its next level.”

When asked if the teams were concerned that Cadillac would have a…