The challenges facing Cadillac ahead of F1 2026

There is no lack of ambition at Cadillac and its US owners, TWG Motorsports and the brand’s parent company General Motors. That’s reflected in its push to reveal the squad’s first-ever race livery during a Super Bowl half-time ad, but that is just one example of the lengths the organisation has gone to. Having rapidly recruited hundreds of staff for its European base in Silverstone, the team has also commissioned a state-of-the-art facility in Fishers, Indiana, that should become its main headquarters and production facility.

Multiple race winners Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez have come onboard with vast amounts of experience and intimate knowledge of what a front-line F1 organisation should look like, from their time at championship winners Mercedes and Red Bull respectively.

Making the grid

The first challenge Cadillac faced was making the starting grid in Australia at all, having only received confirmation it would be allowed to enter the series in November 2024. It couldn’t afford to wait for a formal go-ahead to build up its nascent multi-country team, but recruitment only intensified from that point onwards, now boasting a headcount well north of 500.

So far Cadillac has met every internal deadline it set, being one of the first teams to complete laps with its 2026 car. “We were up against super tight timelines,” Lowdon told Autosport. “But I’m really proud that the team has hit every single one. And I’ve said before with confidence that we’re a team that’s on schedule and we remain on schedule, which I think is a huge achievement for everyone in the team.”

Sergio Perez, Cadillac F1 Team

Photo by: Cadillac Communications

What’s the goal for Cadillac in 2026?

But as F1’s first expansion team in a decade, Cadillac is under no illusion of the challenges still to come in its maiden season and beyond. It didn’t run a particularly high number of laps  – 164 – in Barcelona’s shakedown and is set for a big two weeks in Bahrain to iron out other kinks. Taking Ferrari power units and gearboxes should stand it in good stead, but it remains to be seen just how competitive its first-ever chassis will be. Given the huge number of unknowns at this stage of F1’s new era, targeting a specific position in the contructors’ championship is a fool’s errand at this stage, but Cadillac wants to be a respectable outfit from the get-go, that shows it is serious about its quest.

“When the flag drops in Abu Dhabi, we’ll be able to look back and see,” Lowdon said. “It is a voyage into the unknown for all of the teams with the new regulation set, the new power units. It’s going to be kind of a new way of racing, and it’s very, very difficult to set absolute objectives in a situation like that. But we constantly analyse every single thing that we do.”

But whatever happens during its rookie season, Lowdon stressed it is crucial for the squad to stick together and learn from its mistakes. Only a transparent, no-blame culture can help it get there, and the team specifically recruited staff with that mindeset.

“I think this is a team game. And the key about team games is to instil absolute honesty within the team with honest feedback,” Lowdon said. “If we make mistakes somewhere, these mistakes can happen. We’re all in together. We help each other. That’s how the best teams work. And we’re trying to build a really, really good team. So we will be self-critical, but with the right reasons at heart.”

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– The Autosport.com Team