Starting a Formula One team from scratch was never going to be plain sailing.
With the backing of General Motors (GM) and TWG Global, the Cadillac Formula One entry was officially approved in March 2025 after more than a year of political wrangling between the prospective entry, the championship and its teams, and the International Automobile Federation (FIA).
This gave the new outfit just under a year to finalise its preparations for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Already a monumental task, Cadillac did so while juggling operations from several locations, including a base in Silverstone, the General Motors facilities in North Carolina and Michigan, and 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.
A last-placed finish this season is the expectation, and understandably so as Cadillac get to grips with the world of Formula One. But one thing the team likely did not expect were the legal questions that have been falling at the door of its co-owner Mark Walter.
Who is Mark Walter?
Walter is the chief executive of both Guggenheim Partners and TWG Global, whose subsidiary TWG Motorsports owns a majority stake in the Cadillac Formula One team. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he has a net worth of US$16.3 billion, including an estimated 20 per cent stake in Guggenheim.
Through his companies, Walter also controls or holds stakes in the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chelsea, the Los Angeles Sparks Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team, and the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL).
Until last week, that list also included the Los Angeles Lakers, the National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise Walter purchased a controlling stake in less than a year ago.
However, Walter has now agreed a US$12.5 billion sale to a group led by former Disney chief executive Bob Iger and Josh Kushner – the venture capitalist, younger brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and the man who was set to provide the capital for Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s failed plan to create a US$20 billion commercial vehicle.
The brevity of Walter’s ownership stint with the Lakers is what has caught industry executives and analysts most by surprise. Since then, the Financial Times has reported that Walter and Todd Boehly are in talks to sell their stakes in Chelsea to majority owner Clearlake Capital. If this follows quickly, it will add fuel to the fire of one theory in particular: a motivated seller.
Mark Walter (left) was welcomed to the White House alongside his championship-winning Los Angeles Dodgers in late July by US president Donald Trump (Image credit: Getty Images)
Why is this happening now?
Around one month ago, Bloomberg revealed that Walter’s financial empire was under scrutiny from US prosecutors. This began in 2025 with inquiries into the vast assets controlled by Guggenheim, which total more than US$330 billion.
Walter’s phone and laptop were then seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) later that year. This then led to Delaware Life and Clear Spring, two companies under the Group 1001 insurance collective, receiving grand jury subpoenas.
Group 1001’s parent company is TWG Global and its chief executive is Dan Towriss, who is also chief executive of the Cadillac Formula One team.
Since then, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has revealed that four businesses – ABS Capital, Amistad Financial, Bradford Allen and Hudson Trading – have caught the attention of prosecutors at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the US Attorney’s Office in New York.
According to the WSJ, the four businesses served as intermediaries between the insurance companies Walter controlled. The report said prosecutors are investigating whether he or those businesses committed fraud by concealing financial connections while borrowing billions of dollars from insurers that he controls.
It is important to note that Walter and his businesses, as well as the four intermediaries, have not been accused of any crimes.
Group 1001 is a visible sponsor in TWG’s motorsport interests outside of Formula One, as seen here on Daniel Suárez’s Spire Motorsports entry in Nascar (Image credit: Getty Images)
What does this mean for Cadillac?
Bloomberg reported that Walter has offered to pledge his Guggenheim equity stake as part of an effort to raise billions of dollars for his insurance companies.
This is where onlookers are making the connection with his sale of the Lakers and his reported attempt to offload his Chelsea shares.
When Walter acquired the Lakers, he did so from the Buss family for around US$10 billion. Part of the deal saw Jeanie Buss remain as governor of the team until 2030. She is now attempting to block the sale on the grounds that she did not approve the decision made by her five siblings to sell the family’s remaining stake in the franchise.
Rumours of a rift in the Chelsea boardroom have also been in the public domain long before reports of a sale appeared. In both cases, it would be unwise to speculate around a possible motivation for the sales.
In the same vein, conclusions being drawn around the future of TWG Global’s stake in the Cadillac Formula One team are premature and unwise.
Indeed, BlackBook Motorsport understands there are no concerns of a sale at the time of writing. The turmoil seen when the team decided to replace team principal Graeme Lowdon after just 11 races with former Alpine executive Marcin Budkowski seems unlikely to unfold with Cadillac’s ownership.
The case is also helped by the existence of TWG Motorsports. The division, which also oversees entries across Nascar, IndyCar, Formula E, IMSA, and Supercars, underlines TWG’s broader commitment to motorsport. As a team competing at the pinnacle of motorsport, the Cadillac F1 outfit is the flagship asset within that portfolio, making its future more of a strategic consideration than the sale of an individual sports franchise.
But this situation has many unknowns, and the story appears to be evolving rapidly. After all, the Lakers sale was reportedly finalised in a weekend.
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