Formula One’s newest team Cadillac will fire up its car in “less than 50 days” is the latest revelation from the team, in other words before Christmas. Unlike Haas F1 who joined in 2016, Cadillac are already bound by the FIA’s testing regulations this year and so won’t be able to take their 2026 creation to a track before January 1st.
The team will take advantage of the FIA’s allowance of two “filming days” per season, where the teams can cover a maximum of 200km whilst shooting promotional material. This is yet to be confirmed but will be in January, before the ‘behind closed doors’ test in Barcelona 26-30th January 2026.
Sergio Perez completed a ‘testing with previous cars’ outing in Imola this week, although he was driving a blacked out 2023 Ferrari. Team Boss Graham Lowden confirmed this was all about ‘people training’ for the race crew who have been recently assembled and need to practice a range of F1 race weekend activities whilst live at a circuit.
Cadillac: “Everything is on schedule”
“Everything is on schedule,” Lowdon claims. “In fact, we’ll fire up the engine for the first time in less than 50 days, and the car will run for the first time in January next year. After that, we’ll go testing at the end of January in Barcelona.”
Cadillac only received notification of their inclusion for 2026 at the 2024 US Grand Prix. Their formal registration for next season was only complete in March this year, so Lowden acknowledges that meeting all its deadlines will be tight.
“Time is the enemy in a project like this, because we know we’ll be racing in Melbourne the first week of March 2026, and that deadline can’t be extended,” added Lowdon.
“There’s so much to do. Our entry was only confirmed in March 2025, so the margin is very tight. In that time, we must not only build the car but also manufacture it, design it, hire personnel, build the factories – everything. It’s a real challenge.”
Pro’s and con’s of joining in 2026
Formerly known as the Andretti application, it has taken several years for Cadillac to be given a date when they can go racing. The team in its former guise were hoping for 2025, but FOM ruled against them joining in the final year of a set of car design regulations.
However, Graham Lowden believes there are pro’s and con’s to the team joining in 2026, when F1 will see the biggest ever reset in the technical areas of the chassis and the power unit.
“The downside is that when the rules are stable, you clearly know what your target is, because today, for example, we know McLaren is competitive, and so is Ferrari,” he explains. “But for 2026, no one knows who will be fast. The disadvantage is that you don’t have a clear reference point, but well, this is sport, and that’s what keeps the fans engaged.
“The advantage for us is that with this major regulation change, all teams face a new challenge, including ours. No one knows where they’ll be. If you ask any team principal, they won’t know either. That’s the exciting part: we don’t know where we’ll be.”
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Lowden manages expectations
In all likelihood, Cadillac will be at the back of the pack given Audi, the other new F1 team – bought in the engineering skills from Sauber who have been operating in F1 since the 1970’s. Further, Cadillac will be an engine customer of Ferrari and to a certain degree will be dependent on how connotative their new PU really is.
“Our challenge is bigger than the others because we have to do much more in a shorter time. We have thousands of combined years of F1 experience among the staff, but less than a year working together as a team,” Lowden adds. In somewhat of a managing expectations exercise the Cadillac boss is not concerned about where the team are in the pecking order when the season begins.
“That will be the first challenge – to make the team operate smoothly. And after that, no matter where we start, the important thing will be how quickly we can improve. That will be our focus. So overall, I think it’s an advantage to enter during a rule change,” Lowdon concludes.
Cadillac are taking on a challenge far greater than Haas F1 did in 2016, as they are building their car in house whilst Haas outsourced this to the experienced Dallara. In terms of building a powertrain, the mood music has changed given early targets suggested this would be in 2027.
Cadillac ‘manufacturer status’ deferred
Yet earlier this year, the FIA revealed Cadillac will be officially registered as an F1 manufacturer in 2029. In all likelihood this means Cadillac will never build one of the 2026 breed of F1 powertrains given their life span is expected to be no more than five years.
Their status in 2029 will allow them to be part of the working party, which will set the technical direction for the future of F1 power from 2031 onwards. There is little love for the new 2026 power units from all corners pop the paddock, with F1 supremo Stefano Domenicali calling them too complex and too expensive.
He has called for a return to cheaper, simpler V8 style engines with a much smaller hybrid element something similar to the KERS of 2009. This would allow third party companies like Cosworth to produce F1 powertrains, therefore breaking the grid the current crop of engine manufacturers hold over the sport.
Further, given their US roots being in the big and small block V8 muscle cars, Cadillac are more likely to side with Red Bull and Ferrari on the future of Formula One power. This brings some kind of balance to the influence of the German and Japanese auto makers, who are presently keen to pursue greater electrification even if it means the driver is spending most of his time performing energy management functions behind the wheel.
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The Ferrari Formula One team are fighting an internal civil war. According to the Italian media the blame game is in full swing in Maranello as to who is responsible for the team’s miserable season.
Having slipped from second to fourth after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s double DNF in Brazil, the Scuderia risk finishing the season behind their rivals Mercedes and Red Bull Racing. If so this would be only the fourth time since 1993 the Italian squad has finished the constructors’ title race in fourth place.
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