The recently announced newest addition to the Formula 1, Cadillac, will have to pay a $450 million fee to join the grid for the 2026 season.
Formula 1 annonced that all teams have signed the Concorde Commercial Agreement, which defines how the sport is run for the upcoming seasons. In the agreement, teams dictated that new entries to the sport would have to pay the $450 million fee to join the grid. This fee, which is referred to as an anti-dilution fee, helps to offset the costs to other teams, since the other Formula 1 teams split TV revenue, tickets, and merchandise sales and will now be getting a smaller piece of that pie while Cadillac gets integrated into the sport.
This compensation also goes into the pool for future prize money as well as to offset the costs of now having 11 teams instead of 10.
the last addition to Formula 1, Audi, did not have to pay this fee since they joined the sport by taking over Sauber, and since this was an existing, estab team that was already in the lineup, they were not req pay the fee.
As part of the fee, the money will be split amongst all teams evenly, so each team will receive $45 million. A nice payday to offset the newest American F1 team.
