The new Cadillac Formula 1 team is keeping expectations in check ahead of its upcoming grand prix debut.
The General Motors brand thoroughly assembled its ambitious project, featuring several bases in the United States and the United Kingdom, veteran grand prix winners Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, and customer Ferrari powertrains until the team produces its own engines.
Still, F1 has been more competitive than ever, and everyone at Cadillac is well aware of the scale of the challenge, despite new technical regulations providing an opportunity to reset the pecking order.
Asked whether the team would aim for points, CEO Dan Towriss preferred to play this prospect down: “For me, points would be kind of an arbitrary target.
“I want to look at beating teams, beating cars on track, and how many cars can we pass in year one in moving up the grid? That’s really how we’re thinking about it.
“Secondly, it’s going to be the rate of development on this car as well. So we obviously have a long-term outlook for the team. And so that’s the focus that we’re going to have.
“I think focusing on points out of the gate would be both arbitrary and represent short-term thinking. And what we’re looking at is being successful in the sport over the long term.”
Cadillac encouragingly shook its first F1 car down as early as 16 January, before completing a reported 164 laps in the Barcelona test and running its second (and last) allowed filming day in Bahrain on 9 February.
Sergio Perez, Cadillac
Photo by: Cadillac Communications
In comparison, some established teams took to the track much later, with Aston Martin’s car debuting at Barcelona in the evening of 29 January, while Williams missed the Catalan test altogether and was unable to put its new challenger through its paces util 4 February.
“For us, Barcelona was a lot about shakedown and just testing systems,” Towriss said. “Because everything we’re building is for the first time, so that’s the first steering column, the first fuel system, all the pieces. So, real focus on reliability. We’ll start to see where the performance shakes out.
“I think, for us, it’s going to be about the rate of development. I would expect to be behind, from an aero standpoint, coming out of the gate in Melbourne.
“As we’re getting more data, the development is going to come pretty fast on this car. We certainly expect to be competing against other teams. We’ll see where things shake out. Again, we’ve got a lot of changes – tyres, chassis, power unit. The drivers are going to have to drive these cars differently. There are a lot of questions that still have to be answered.”
Towriss’ admission that Cadillac may lag behind its rivals aero-wise is compounded by the fact Mercedes-powered cars are expected to hold an advantage, thanks to the German manufacturer’s astute – and controversial – interpretation of the new power unit regulations regarding the internal combustion engine’s compression ratio.
No fewer than four teams use Mercedes powertrains, including the brand’s works team, reigning champion McLaren, Williams and Alpine.
“There’s obviously a lot of dialogue amongst the power unit manufacturers,” Towriss pointed out. “I think there’s unanimous views outside of Mercedes as to what should happen. That will continue to take its course in dialogue with the FIA. We’ll see what happens going in.
“I think everybody agrees that we won’t see some of those advantages in 2027, and it remains to be seen how that’s going to be policed in 2026.”
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