One of my most hated songs of all time is Send in the Clowns from the musical A Little Night Music. It's a ballad from Act 2 written by Stephen Sondheim, which puzzles me as I am a huge fan of his masterful work, just not this one. I'm also not big on clowns.
One of the most irritating sign-offs in a co-worker farewell card is Same old circus, different clowns basically implying moving on will make no difference as all the office types will recur at the new job. You know what I mean. Three months after leaving you connect over a coffee or beer with a friend still working at the old place. You use a phrase like; Oh you know. He's just like Nigel, but with a beard and a Northern accent! Resulting in your friend nodding and laughing in a knowing manner.
Yup. We all know the circus and the clowns. Refer current White House for an excellent example of how everything changes, and nothing changes. Or watch the latest Megan Markle Netflix series. Whichever you think will annoy you fastest.
Which brings me, however slowly, back to Cadillac. So far they have avoided BAR's hilarious Tradition of Excellence tag-line which is forever imprinted in my mind as, well, more hilarious than a bouncy castle full of drunken clowns on pogo sticks... with cream pies.
Cadillac has circus tents in three countries, USA, UK and Italy. Now the master of the Big Tops is busy recruiting clowns, sorry, valued team members. Their American operations are already spread across three locations being; Indianapolis, Indiana; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Warren Michigan. We then add Silverstone, and a modest presence at Ferrari for engine activities. We are now up to five locations in three different counties. Not to mention differing languages, and time zones. Combined team meetings are going to be fun... No, it's your turn to attend at 4:00am. We did that last week. Closely followed by... Sorry can we have that again in real English?
Starting at the top, up on the high-wire, we have Dan Towriss. A man with a pleasing smile, and minimal hair, who has a LinkedIn profile stating: "Dan Towriss is a visionary leader driving innovation and transformation across a wide range of businesses. As founder and CEO of Group 1001, a dynamic financial services company, he applies more than 30 years of experience to drive growth, strategy, and operational excellence. Under Dan's leadership, Group 1001 has amassed combined assets under management of more than $66 Billion."
OK. So a successful, long term finance man. His second bio paragraph reads...
"Dan is also driving growth and innovation in the business of racing as CEO of TWG Motorsports. He played a pivotal role in securing the landmark Cadillac Formula 1 team in partnership with General Motors, and has acquired a broad racing portfolio that includes Andretti Global, Wayne Taylor Racing, and Spire Motorsports. Dan is building TWG Motorsports to bring innovation, operational excellence, and financial strength to a global motorsports enterprise that expects to win at the highest level."
There's a third paragraph about his extensive (highly commendable) charity work, but you get the idea.
OK. So the opening paragraph. This is a man with an exceptional record of making money. He is first and foremost a world class financier. No argument. The bank balances prove it. I've sent a 'connect' request. I'll let you know how that works out. I'm already linked to Daniel Ricciardo and follow Nico Rosberg, who has turned the ability to link off, which tells you something about both those former drivers right there... Returning to Dan.
The Motorsport paragraph. Umm. "...in the business of racing..." Business, not 'sport'. You cannot say they are misleading us. These two paragraphs prove Dan has jumped in to make profitable businesses. Not happy fans and cheerful drivers, with out-of-this-world engineering on the cars. Not world class sport... no... world class business, which aligns perfectly with Liberty Media.
Dan was introduced to motorsport via Zach Veach a 30-year-old IndyCar driver from Ohio who since entering the sport in 2017 has a career best finish of 15th. Zach moved to Andretti racing in 2018, and pulled his Towriss sponsorship with him, thus introducing Dan to the Andretti universe, and quality motor racing. Dan soon purchased a stake in Andretti.
So yes the man appears to like motorsport, but it appears he likes turning a profit even more. I've no doubt given his financial results that back in the day he would have been a leading investor for Boston Whaling ships. That wouldn't mean he loved the ocean, or whales.
Dan is clearly a highly capable successful businessman. Nothing wrong with that as long as the team of experts below you is (a) empowered to operate, and (b) world class. So who has Dan selected for the day-to-day trauma which is running an F1 team?
Graeme Lowdon is his pick for team principal. A man with strong electrical engineering credentials who branched out in the mid-1990's to form an industry-focused online trading platform and Eiger racing, a Formula Renault racing team. In 2000 he joined Manor Motorsport as a non-executive director. In a variety of business twists and turns this morphed into Virgin Racing, which became Marussia F1, which then saw him depart the company in 2015. He has now reappeared as Cadillac F1 Team Principal.
Engineer? Tick. Businessman? Tick. History of winning in F1? Not so much. Potentially the Nico Hulkenberg of Team Principals then. He will have a fair idea of the right direction, and he will be financially prudent, but does that mean he knows how to win? Well starting in 2026 we will find out.
Next, Nick Chester is technical director. He's worked for Simtek, Arrows and Benetton. He was a key player in the 2005 and 2006 championship wins for the team with Alonso. So, Ok, here is a man that knows what winning looks like. He has also worked for Lotus, and more recently the Mercedes EQ Formula E team. He joined Andretti Global in March 2023 to play a key role in building the F1 team.
Jon Tomlinson is head of aerodynamics. Not as storied as Nick, Jon has bounced through a few teams. Newman-Haas Racing's Lola Indycars, Swift Indycars, Jordan Grand Prix, then Renault F1, serving with them for the same 2005 and 2006 campaigns that Nick saw, before moving to Williams F1 in 2006. He left Williams in 2011, and is returning to F1 with Cadillac.
John McQuilliam is Cadillac's chief designer. Started with Williams in 1986, then Arrows, then Jordan. He has also worked for Spyker and Manor Marussia F1. When Manor folded in 2017 he moved to Pro Drive as Chief Engineer for their composites division. He then joined Andretti Global in 2024.
Various others in the Cadillac team have prior F1 experience. It would appear they are assembling a solid team, but are they assembling a winning team? They currently claim to have around 300 people working in the F1 team. How does this compare? Based on best available public figures it would appear that Haas has around 200 staff. A more modest number, but then Ferrari does all the heavy lifting on engines and some subsystems. So Cadillac are already eclipsing the Haas number.
Mercedes claim around 1,200, McLaren around 900. Red Bull racing around 1,400 and Ferrari just over 4,800. The problem with the Ferrari number being two-fold, first they do not breakout the racing team from the general company, and second they build engines in-house.
Now a curious fact... Williams currently have about 1,100 staff on the books, which would suggest they should be burying Haas and worrying McLaren plus Mercedes. Season 2024? McLaren won with 666 points, Ferrari scored 652, coming second. Mercedes scored 468, fourth behind Red Bull. Haas scored 58, seventh, Williams 17 points coming ninth, and only beating Kick-me-now Sauber.
Haas use Ferrari power, as will Cadillac, and Williams use Mercedes power, as also used by McLaren. So McLaren, an engine customer of Mercedes, beat their supplier to the championship by nearly 200 points, while Ferrari scored 594 more points than Haas. What difference the people, apparently rather a lot.
Cadillac have a slick marketing machine, a cool financial head at the top of the racing organisation, being Dan, they love the smell of money and they are American, all things which Liberty Media delight in. Some of their senior team members have championship winning experience, and a number more have pervious F1 experience. Will it be enough? Will they be given the freedom to act and react as they need during a season of F1? Or will it all be giant red shoes, pies in the face, and clown cars?
Well dear reader, Cadillac is game to send in the clowns, and come season 2026 we shall all get to find out what capers unfold. Oh what a circus!
Max Noble
Learn more about Max and check out his previous features, here
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