Before a wheel has turned in anger, American automotive giants are trading barbs.

Not that they're likely to make a movie about it, but it is already clear that the relationship between Ford and Cadillac, now that both are on the F1 grid, is going to be a little feisty.

While Cadillac enters the sport for the first time in its own right, albeit using Ferrari engines for the first few (three) seasons, Ford, which has enjoyed a (mostly) illustrious history in the sport, returns in partnership with Red Bull, even if it isn't entirely clear what that partnership involves.

Talking to The Athletic, Cadillac CEO, Dan Towriss openly questioned the relationship between Ford and Red Bull, as he compared it to General Motors' (GM) commitment.

"It's not even close," he said of the Blue Oval. "One is a marketing deal with very minimal impact, while GM is an equity owner (in Cadillac F1).

"They're deeply embedded from an engineering standpoint," he continued, "and they were involved from day one. Those two deals couldn't be more different."

Bill Ford, executive chairman of the Ford Motor Company, was quick to respond.

"I started to laugh," he replied when asked about Towriss' claim, describing the comments as "patently absurd."

"I would say, actually, the reverse is true," he continued. "They're running a Ferrari engine, they're not running a Cadillac engine, I don't know if they have any GM employees on the race team."

"Nothing could be further from the truth, in terms of our partnership with Red Bull being a marketing effort," added Will Ford, general manager of Ford Racing.

"We could have spent a lot of money to slap our logo on a car, or to put our name alongside a team," he insisted. "But we made a very deliberate decision to form Red Bull Ford Powertrains, as a true technical partnership and really complement the audacious eﬀort that Red Bull decided to set down on in developing their own power unit.

"We found the areas where Ford can uniquely complement the skills and capabilities that Red Bull has, given the size and breadth and technical expertise within our organisation, with the intention of creating the best power unit in F1, just like we did in decades past," he added.

Looks like fans may get to enjoy some 'popcorn moments' this season as the American automotive legends duke it out.