- Reportedly at least seven interested parties in the team
- Walter is under federal investigation in the US
Mark Walter is exploring a sale of the Cadillac Formula One team worth up to US$3 billion, according to a report from Sportico.
Walter is chief executive of Guggenheim Partners and TWG Global, whose subsidiary, TWG Motorsports, owns a majority stake in the Cadillac entry. Sportico reports at least seven parties are interested in the team.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has since revealed that John Henry’s Fenway Sports Group, which owns Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Boston Red Sox and Premier League soccer club Liverpool, is one of the suitors.
Walter is the subject of a US federal investigation into whether he or his businesses concealed financial connections while borrowing billions of dollars from insurers that he controls.
Since then, Walter has begun dismantling his sports empire by selling the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Los Angeles Lakers and Premier League soccer club Chelsea. He is also looking to sell the Women’s National Basketball Association’s (WNBA) Los Angeles Sparks for US$700 million, according to Bloomberg.
At present, it doesn’t appear a sale of Major League Baseball (MLB) outfit the Los Angeles Dodgers is on the table for Walter – he told the California Post last week that he is “going to keep the team no matter what” – but industry insiders previously told BlackBook Motorsport that any deal to sell Cadillac was unlikely to happen.
Cadillac and General Motors declined to comment when approached. TWG Global did not immediately respond to requests.
How did we get here?
Cadillac debuted this season after more than a year of political wrangling between the prospective entry, the championship and its teams, and the International Automobile Federation (FIA). At the time, the Concorde Agreement dictated any team should pay US$200 million to join the sport, but teams felt this did not reflect the commercial success of the sport.
The Concorde Agreement dictates the commercial terms by which all teams agree to race in Formula One, namely how media rights revenue and prize money is distributed. The terms were renewed for 2026 onwards and it was agreed the new entrant would pay an anti-dilution fee to the existing teams in the region of US$450 million.
Then came the considerable cost of setting up the operation, including establishing a base in Silverstone, building a presence at General Motors facilities in North Carolina and Michigan, and taking control of Toyota’s wind tunnel in Cologne. The team is also breaking ground on its headquarters in Fishers, Indiana, which is expected to be mostly operational in time for the 2027 season.
In total, excluding the anti-dilution fee, setup costs are believed to have exceeded US$1 billion. With just four races left, the Cadillac team remains without a point in its debut season, and its cars have suffered numerous mechanical issues throughout the year.
It is understandable, therefore, that Walter is seeking to recoup around US$3 billion following the considerable investment. After all, he saw the value of his controlling stake in the Lakers increase from US$10 billion to US$12.5 billion in just over 12 months.
However, with valuations in Formula One increasing exponentially over such a short space of time, there is a general consensus that no one is truly sure how much a Formula One team is currently worth. General Motors also owns an unknown share of Cadillac alongside TWG Global.
Toto Wolff sold about five per cent of the Mercedes team to CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz in November 2025 for an estimated US$6 billion. Is a struggling Cadillac team worth half the price of an established, championship-winning operation like Mercedes?
What’s more, Otro Capital is reportedly shopping around its 24 per cent stake in the Alpine outfit. In May, Mercedes baulked at the reported price of US$720 million, valuing the team at around US$3 billion, and since then there has been no concrete progress.
The commercial benefits of being involved in Formula One are clear to see, but that same confidence isn’t extending to investors at the current asking price.