General Motors will reportedly pay an eye-watering $450m anti-dilution fee to secure a spot on the 2026 Formula 1 grid.

After years of back-and-forth over whether or not Formula 1 would welcome an 11th team on the grid, the sport’s chiefs announced an “agreement in principle” for General Motors to enter in 2026, racing under their Cadillac brand.

General Motors will be providing the ‘cake’ for Cadillac’s F1 entry

“With Formula 1’s continued growth plans in the US, we have always believed that welcoming an impressive US brand like GM/Cadillac to the grid and GM as a future power unit supplier could bring additional value and interest to the sport,” said Greg Maffei, president of Liberty Media.

“We credit the leadership of General Motors and their partners with significant progress in their readiness to enter Formula 1.

“We are excited to move forward with the application process for the GM/Cadillac team to enter the Championship in 2026.”

The soon-to-be F1 team is the initial Andretti Global-led programme that was denied entry back in January when Formula 1 bosses ruled that Andretti would not add value to the sport.

Rival team bosses were vehemently opposed to an 11th team, arguing that it would dilute not only their brands but also the prize pot as that would need to be split between 11 teams instead of today’s 10.

It was an argument that Red Bull team boss Christian Horner raised again in Las Vegas as rumours that the sport was about to confirm an 11th team did the rounds.

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Conceding the final decision was “down to the commercial rights holder and the FIA”, Horner told Sky F1: “And like with all these things, it comes down to the finances and how it’s going to be funded, and how it’s going to be paid.

“As long as, logistically, they can be accommodated, we have absolutely no problem with seeing GM come here – but we’re not paying for it.

“We’ve got no issue with them coming. We welcome them with open arms, but you don’t want to see the prize fund diluted. It will be that question of, who’s side of the cake does it come out of?”

To start with, BBC Sport reveals, General Motors will be supplying the cake.

Entering Cadillac in a joint effort between GM and US group TWG Global, senior sources have reportedly told the British publication that GM and TWG will fork out a whopping ‘$450m’ for an anti-dilution fee. That’s more than double the current $200m anti-dilution.

That $450m will be split between the 10 existing teams as ‘compensation’ for the prize money in 2026 being split 11 ways.

Read next: Cadillac F1: Five drivers we’d love to see join the new American team