With the FIA provisionally accepting an 11th Formula 1 team entry from Cadillac F1, pundits have leaped at the chance to offer advice to one of the few teams to have been built from the ground up rather than purchased and rebranded.

Jacques Villeneuve, F1’s 1997 World Champion turned contemporary pundit, thinks Cadillac should be learning from the big names like Mercedes and Ferrari — not following the “worthless” example set by Alpine.

The “worthless” team model Cadillac F1 should avoid

Last year, one of the key talking points in the Formula 1 universe was the potential for an 11th team to join the grid in the near future. Andretti Global’s strong petition was ultimately rejected by Formula One Management — though the FOM did leave the door open for Cadillac to join.

See, Andretti Global had filed its petition before it had confirmed its ties with the General Motors sub-brand, as GM’s interest was sparked by the FIA’s initial acceptance of the petition.

When Michael Andretti stepped down from Andretti Global, Cadillac’s entry was accepted soon after.

What makes the team so remarkable is the fact that it is one of the few modern teams to build itself from the ground up; it’s far more common for one team to buy out another — such as Red Bull did — or for a team to scoop up the assets of a defunct team — like Haas.

Cadillac will have a much more challenging task ahead of itself, and Jacques Villeneuve wants the outfit to really think about the other teams it aims to emulate when joining the series.

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“It’s important General Motors establish themselves properly,” Villeneuve told betting website Spin Casino.

But what does ‘properly’ mean in this case?

Villeneuve continued, “If they do it the way Alpine was doing it, then it will be worthless.

“If they do it the way that Mercedes and Ferrari have been doing it, then that is very different and definitely worthwhile. It depends on what their approach is.”

Though the 1997 champion is referring to three contemporary teams, he’s right in noting that there’s a significant difference in the way those outfits operate.

Mercedes and Ferrari may be subsidiaries of their automakers of the same names, but the race teams are able to operate with a large amount of freedom. Mercedes and Ferrari recognize that success is born of financial investment and of trust in the competitive arm of their organization; as a result, those two teams are able to grow, evolve, and improve.

That also means that those two outfits are able to develop their own power units. With a large, competent staff and a dedication to forging the best hybrid power possible in hopes of using that technology in road cars, the team is able to be strong on both the team and PU fronts.

Alpine, on the other hand, has built its own Renault engines, but the very structure of the team is intimately tied to the French government — or, to put it more simply, it’s tied to a lot of people who may not have full trust in the operation of the team, or who may not see the value in developing and testing new technology.

Villeneuve seems to be saying that Cadillac should be prepared to operate its race team independently of its overall automotive team, and that it should be willing to make big investments to keep the technology ever on the upswing.

The whole point of Cadillac’s team, then, must be to design and build groundbreaking technology — not to simply be a presence on the grid for marketing reasons.

“If it is just to benefit from how big F1 is nowadays then it won’t serve any purpose to F1,” Villeneuve said.

“We don’t know what is behind GM’s thinking but if it is to actually be competitive, bring something to the sport and really be involved, that is great news.”

Thus far, it does seem that Cadillac’s intentions are in the right place — but it will be impossible to know fully until the team joins the grid and starts building its own power units.

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