Cadillac has limitless ambitions for what it can achieve, both in its debut season and in the long term in Formula 1, given the resources it has at its disposal.
With the arrival of Cadillac, the F1 grid will expand to eleven teams in 2026, with the American team becoming the first completely new addition in ten years. Cadillac team principal Graeme Lowdon says the starting point for the team is more difficult to determine due to the new regulations coming into effect, but there are no limits to what the team can achieve.
“It’s impossible at the moment to predict anything championship-wise next year,” Lowdon said. “The same goes for everyone, up and down [the grid] – I think absolutely no one knows where they will be next year. And if they do, they’re making it up! Because none of us know where we will be.
“We have some clear objectives for next year. We have to have everything ready. All that stuff. But that’s really secondary to: we’re going to measure, all the things we have control over, how do we execute? That’s the most important thing for next year. How do we proceed? And the performance scope that we have defined for us next year, how much will we get from that?
“With the support we have, both financially and in terms of technology, vision and everything else, we have said before that our ambitions are limitless. And they should be.
“We will be in a position to operate within the cost ceiling. So no matter where we start next year, we want to move forward and develop in a constructive way. And I know every team will say that, but that is the reality. We were founded with that bold ambition in mind.”
“I know how difficult Formula 1 is. You can’t just beat teams that have been doing it for years. These teams are extremely good at what they do. And we have a lot of respect for them.”
“But we hire good people. And if we function well, then we build a good team. And that contributes to the competition. The way we are structured is very clear, we are not here just to compete. We are here to really try to build a successful Formula 1 team. And that is my goal.”
Cadillac F1 and TWG Motorsports CEO Dan Towriss agrees with Lowdon’s assessment, saying the team is in line with Audi’s timeline of seeing a championship fight possible by the time the project is five years old.
“I think five years is the right time horizon in which you want to be in that position to compete for podiums and wins, and the opportunity for a world championship,” Towriss said.
“Whether it’s with a Cadillac engine or a Ferrari engine, from that point of view it’s obviously just about the development of the car and what the team can do. I think that’s a timeline that we want to be at the top of.”
“The most honest answer is that we just don’t know [where Cadillac will start 2026]. I see a glint in some people’s eyes as we think about how things are coming together, where we are from an aero standpoint, a weight standpoint, some of the upcoming testing and so on.
“But everyone else’s tools should be more accurate than ours. They’ve been in the works for a long time. They had real data that had to be calibrated on all the models. But at the same time we’ve hired a lot of really smart, really experienced Formula 1 people and we’ll see what happens.”
“Really, it’s about the level of improvement from that perspective now that we have data, track data and our ability to bring updates to the track. I think this is something we’ve been thinking about for a while. A lot of experienced Formula 1 people have been at other teams. Now you have a blank sheet of paper – we can build this team any way we want.”
“And so that ability to get updates at the track, what is our strategy for that? And so our pace of improvement is the real measure of what this team is going to be able to do.”
“The premise: Maybe we catch lightning in a bottle, maybe we get lucky. If we finish last, hopefully not too much, but then what is the rate of improvement that comes after that?”
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