Cadillac is considering as many as eight different drivers for the two new seats which will be created when the team joins Formula 1 next year.
Team principal Graeme Lowden said preliminary discussions are already underway with some drivers.
“We are either planning or have spoken to probably seven or eight drivers altogether I would guess,” the Cadillac team boss told Speed City. “It’ll be no surprise that anybody who has got recent Formula 1 experience would be included in that list.
“But I would stress that at the moment any discussions are very preliminary. They are just really trying to get to know what people’s interest levels are, what their motivations are, and that kind of thing. So we’re certainly not in advanced discussion with any driver.”
2026 F1 drivers and teams
Lowden admitted the team is “in a lucky position” as several experienced, race-winning former Formula 1 drivers left the series last year, such as Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez.
“There’s a bunch of people with a lot of experience,” he said. “Not just turn-up-and-drive experienced, people who’ve been at championship-winning teams, or race-winning or whatever.
“But also people who are younger who’ve got experience as well, so that’s another angle. Also promising drivers who haven’t yet had a grand prix experience but they’ve proven themselves in junior formula and junior categories as well.
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“So considering we were not able to be active in that last driver market, we’re actually in a reasonably good position at the moment in terms of putting together a driver line-up for ’26.
Feature: Who will Cadillac select as its first two Formula 1 race drivers?
“We’ve said a number of times the driver line-up selection will be on merit and I’m happy that all of the drivers that we’re having early discussions with are perfectly capable Formula 1 drivers and perfectly capable of leading a good professional team.”
Cadillac will be the second American team on the grid next year in addition to Haas. Lowden said the team is monitoring the progress of two American drivers in series outside F1: Colton Herta in IndyCar and Jak Crawford, who is part of Aston Martin’s young driver programme, in Formula 2.
“Colton’s obviously started the IndyCar season now. He was unlucky in the first race, I would say, drove very well and finished fourth in the last race.
“Obviously we’re very interested to see how Jak goes in Formula 2. The first round in Melbourne was a bit disrupted.
“As we’ve said before, I think everybody would expect a Formula 1 team to hire their drivers on merit and that’s what we’ll do. But as we often have said before there’s nothing meaning that we would have one or more drivers from the US at some stage.”
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In a recent interview for one of his personal sponsors, Sergio Perez revealed that “several doors” would be open for a return to Formula 1. Invariably, Cadillac are mentioned as the most logical destination for the Mexican in this regard. While there are indeed talks within the US team of possibly attracting Perez, things are not as far advanced as Mexican media in particular would lead us to believe.
The reintroduction of the V10 engines seemed like another empty promise by FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, however, German newspaper Auto, Motor und Sport believes that the federation are indeed looking into whether it would be possible to make that happen. These power units would return from the 2030 season onwards with using renewable fuel, replacing the existing V6 hybrid engines.
Fred Vasseur sees Cadillac’ s arrival as a positive development for Formula 1, as long as the company gets its act together. Ferrari will work frequently with the new team as Cadillac’s engine supplier. In any case, Vasseur is already delighted with the Americans’ work ethic.
Formula One Management made its reluctance to expand the grid from 10 teams to 11 unequivocally clear last year.
The FIA, the governing body of motorsport, approved Andretti’s application in October 2023. But three months later F1’s commercial rights holder FOM turned up its nose and turned down Andretti. An expansion of F1’s 20-car grid “would not, in and of itself, provide value to the championship” it sniffed while closing the door.
Eventually, FOM dropped its obstruction and, last week, confirmed an 11th team would be allowed in. Exactly why it changed its position is a matter of some conjecture.
FOM made a song and dance about the team being rebranded by General Motors, but that looked like smoke and mirrors. Andretti brought Cadillac on board two months before FOM’s initial rebuff.
Was the real problem a clash of personalities between former Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei and Andretti team founder Michael Andretti, both of whom moved on from their positions last year? Did pressure from the United States Congress, at a time when Liberty has other headaches with legislators, tip the balance?
F1 will have its first 22-car grid since 2016 next year
Regardless, this was a total about-face from F1, and not the first on Liberty’s watch. And, like many of those which preceded it, it’s a change for the better.
See also: The bonus point for fastest lap, which F1 has canned for this season, six years after introducing it. At the time FOM declared awarding a point to the driver who set the fastest lap time in a race (provided they finished in the top 10) would achieve that hallowed goal to which all must be sacrificed: “Improve the show.”
Of course, it didn’t. As many pointed out before the rule’s introduction (strictly speaking, reintroduction), it was a triviality which added little besides occasional confusion.
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That in itself was not much to complain about. For the most part, the bonus point for fastest lap was easily overlooked. But then it became a bone of contention which pointed towards a deeper problem for which FOM doesn’t have a fix, and getting rid of it proved a sticking plaster solution.
Feature: F1’s bonus point for fastest lap is dead. Will anyone notice it’s gone?
The most objectionable aspect of the bonus point for fastest lap was not the rule itself but the manner in which FOM went from proclaiming it would be great and declaring it was enormously popular – a decidedly doubtful claim – to suddenly dropping it without a word of explanation for months.
Imposing the bonus point for fastest lap and ignoring the many reasonable objections which were voiced to it (which have now been vindicated) was arrogant. In blocking Andretti, and in particular by questioning their lack of name recognition, F1 showed a dismaying lack of respect for the 16th world champion’s family. It also demonstrated a failure to understand that F1’s appeal as a ‘show’ ultimately rests on it being regarded as a true competition, not a closed club.
These aren’t the only occasions FOM has given up on one of its innovations or policies, however reluctantly. Starting races 10 minutes past the hour was quietly dropped. Two experiments with pre-race driver introductions, the last of which was supposed to be the first of many, came and went.
Of course not all of the changes to F1 since Liberty Media arrived have been undesirable – far from it. They have introduced some worthwhile innovations which have broadened F1’s appeal, by using new channels such as Netflix, embracing digital media and creating its own live streaming service. Not to mention promoting women as competitors instead of treating them as mere furniture.
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Still, a few more U-turns would be welcome. The new rule forcing two tyre changes per driver at Monaco, introduced after F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali’s criticism of last year’s race at the principality, has all the hallmarks of a knee-jerk rule change which will produce unforeseen and undesirable consequences.
But that pales next to Liberty Media’s greatest folly: Sprint races. Or, as FOM insists on calling them, ‘sprints’, despite the fact that drivers, by their own admission, do little sprinting in them.
Even the competitors struggle to summon any enthusiasm for these forgettable sideshows arbitrarily inflicted on a handful of rounds. Drivers say they ‘don’t like them’, they ‘mean nothing’, call sprint pole positions ‘not proper’ triumphs and race victories ‘not real wins’.
F1 is deluding itself by pretending there will ever be great enthusiasm for a competition which the competitors obviously have such low regard for. Make this the next U-turn, please, FOM.
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Cadillac will be the first new Formula 1 team in a decade when it joins the grid next year.
Graeme Lowden, their team principal, understands the scale of the challenge as he has experienced it before. His most recent F1 experience was at the team known as Virgin when it entered F1 15 years ago.
Although it outlasted its fellow 2010 newcomers Lotus (later Caterham) and HRT, Lowden’s last team fell into administration at the end of 2016. Virgin went through three different identities in six years as different backers came and went.
But Cadillac will benefit enormously from the backing of US carmaking giant General Motors and input from sports group TWG, according to Lowden. “Far the biggest thing that’s been helpful is the foundations that we’ve got, these partnerships with TWG and GM,” he said in response to a question from RaceFans.
“It would be incredibly difficult to bring a team in nowadays without that kind of support. I don’t think anybody has ever made commitments both in terms of public statements and, equally important, financial commitment to a new team.
“The investment that has gone in prior to there being a confirmation of entries is really very, very impressive and is a reflection of the commitment that the shareholders have to this sport.”
The new team originally applied to enter F1 under the name Andretti. Cadillac joined the project in November 2023 and, after Formula One Management expressed doubt over the value of the Andretti brand to F1, applied its name to the project.
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Lowden says the manufacturer is fully invested in competing in F1. “It’s obviously a brand of General Motors, GM needs no introduction, but one of the things that I particularly like about the involvement of GM is this is not a ‘putting a sticker on a car’ exercise,” he said. “This is a full involvement of an incredibly technically advanced and technically aware company and it’s extremely good that we can draw upon that.”
Cadillac will join the F1 grid next year
He calls TWG a “sporting and commercial powerhouse” whose experience beyond motorsport will also benefit Cadillac. “They have a collection of interests in a very wide range of sports. Not just motorsport, but their portfolio in motorsport is pretty impressive and I think probably unprecedented, actually.
“They also have involvement and ownership in other sports as well, whether it’s NBA, Premier League, also a really wide range of sports. So there’s also insight and perspective that we can draw from there.”
Although Cadillac had to overcome significant opposition from FOM to gain its place on the grid for the 2026 F1 season, Lowden says his new team faces more favourable circumstances as it enters the series than his last one did.
Virgin’s bid to enter F1 was approved in 2009 when the series made its first attempt to introduce a cost cap. Under regulations planned for 2010, newcomers were offered some rules breaks in exchange for committing to a spending limit.
However the regulations were never approved, meaning Virgin and their fellow newcomers found themselves at an immediate competitive disadvantage. It took until 2021 for F1 to finally introduce a spending limit for teams, by which time Virgin and the rest were long gone.
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“The last time I was involved in bringing a new team in the goalposts changed hugely,” said Lowden. “It’s a matter of history now what went through.
Symonds has joined Lowden at Cadillac
“If you remember back to 2009, the battles to try and get something very odd back then called a ‘cost cap’, apparently just became an absolute impossibility and yet now it’s seen as a very positive thing within the sport by all the teams. So there’s been a significant change in the landscape of how you bring in a team.”
The team has already attracted several well-known names within the sport. “Very experienced people are on board like Nick Chester, Pat Symonds, and on the commercial side Caroline McGrory. These are people who’ve spent decades in Formula 1.”
Symonds was a particularly eye-catching hire, as the former F1 engineering director last worked at the series itself, framing the very technical regulations Cadillac and its rivals will compete under next year. However Lowden says that detail was secondary to the team’s interest in hiring him.
“Pat’s an incredibly valuable addition to anybody’s team,” he said. “It’s less that he was involved in the rules, it’s just he’s Pat Symonds and he knows what he’s doing and he’s got vast experience.
“I’ve been racing with him before so it wasn’t a difficult decision for me to look to go racing with Pat again because I know what he can do. Is it helpful that he understands the rule set? Yes, but I think that’s outweighed by just the fact that he’s good at what he does.”
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Given his experience of working for a new team in the past, Lowden is understandably reluctant to set goals, but stresses that “getting on the grid, for us that just has to be a given.”
“We just have to be there and we want to push as hard as we can,” he said. “But it is incredibly difficult to set expectations for a new team for a whole bunch of reasons.
“Yes, we’ve got a lot of experienced people. But also a team operates through a highly complex network of processes and what we don’t yet have – and no new team ever does have – is any kind of validation of the processes themselves.
“A good example would be: yes, we’re very active in the wind tunnel at the moment, but we can’t correlate what the wind tunnel does with the track because we’re not racing. And you can’t just go and race a Formula 1 car on your own, it’s just not allowed under the rules.
“So it’s very, very difficult to set expectations other than in terms of what we are in control of. That [means] delivering the car that we want, on time, with the group of people that we want. All of those things, we hold ourselves to really, really high standards. But in terms of measuring ourselves against others, I think it’s even more complicated than normal.”
However he insists the team will not be satisfied to just make up the numbers. “The ambition […] is limitless,” he said. “Just being part of Formula 1 is not the objective. We do want to be a meaningful part of the competition, but we recognise that that can take time.”
Compared to what he’s experienced before in F1, Lowden believes he has a much better chance of success this time. “In terms of my experience bringing teams in, I’ve never been involved in something that’s so well-structured and so well-backed and so well-funded as well,” he said. “That certainly changes the landscape completely. Not just a little bit: Completely.”
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For the first time, Graeme Lowdon and Cadillac’s new F1 team spoke at length to the media about the ambitious project. Anyone who had listened to the team boss for a good hour could only conclude one thing: Cadillac is dead serious and is going for the very top spots in the sport.
Cadillac Formula 1 team principal Graeme Lowden has given the first indication of how the team intends to select drivers for its debut next year.
He said the team entered by US carmaking giant General Motors will give serious consideration to running an American driver, but only if they prove competitive enough.
“We’ll definitely select on merit,” Lowden told media including RaceFans today. “Formula 1’s not a playground. This is the pinnacle of world motorsport so, for sure, we need to select drivers on merit.”
The FIA and Formula 1 confirmed last week Cadillac will enter the championship in 2026. Although many drivers are already under contract for 2026, several multiple race winners lost their race seats last year.
Sargeant is not looking for a comeback, says Lowden
“Luckily for us there are a lot of good drivers out there,” Lowden acknowledged. “Unfortunately, we’ve not been able to be in the driver market until the entry is confirmed, so it’s a little bit too early to go too much into any detail, because it’s only now that we’re able to have meaningful conversations. But for sure we want to have drivers that can contribute to the overall programme.”
Lowden acknowledged the speculation that the US team would prefer to have at least one driver from America. There are no US drivers on the grid at present.
“Personally, I see no reason why an American driver can’t be selected on merit,” he said. “It’s certainly something I think the fans would like to see and I see no reason why that can’t happen.”
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“Just because someone’s American doesn’t mean that they can’t be a good Formula 1 driver,” he added. “We’re not starting a team for the short-term.
Herta has ability but not a licence, says Lowden
“The partners have made this commitment into Formula 1 very much for the longer-term. We spoke fairly early on in the process about our desire to also improve opportunities and the ability for the drivers to come through as well.
“We will be looking at some form of academy programme. So looking forward, I see no reason why we won’t have American drivers in the team on merit.”
There are few American drivers with the necessary FIA superlicence points which would allow them to compete in F1. One of the few, Logan Sargeant, lost his drive with Williams in the middle of last year, and Lowden believes he is not looking to return to F1.
“Logan, from my understanding, is no longer involved in motorsport,” he said. “He’s an American but no we haven’t had any conversations with him.”
US IndyCar driver Colton Herta has been linked to the team before, and Cadillac’s consultant Mario Andretti has named him as a potential target. However his lack of superlicence points rules him out for the time being, Lowden acknowledged.
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“He doesn’t have the required number of super licence points and if that were to remain the case then that’s clearly an impediment for him. We can’t choose a driver that doesn’t have the points, that’s just the real world that we live in and we just have to take that into account.
“Does his lack of reaching this or lack of being at the threshold for the superlicence in any way affect his ability to drive a race car? No, he’s an incredibly talented driver and so, for sure, it’s not shock news that we would be looking to consider Colton alongside a whole bunch of other drivers as well.
“Certainly he’s not the only one actually in that situation, and he won’t be the last, where there’s some uncertainty due to superlicence points, But we just have to live with that, that’s the regulation, we just have to respect it.”
Another driver who lost his F1 race seat last year, Zhou Guanyu, has a connection to Lowden via his management team. Lowden praised Zhou’s performance but insisted he will not be given preferential treatment when it comes to selecting the team’s drivers.
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“Zhou has done an exceptionally good job under difficult circumstances over the last couple of years. What makes it actually quite useful for me is he doesn’t necessarily need to explain the background of his abilities because I’ve had a front row seat to see all that, so that’s a benefit.
“There’s the correct checks and balances in place, so there’s no favouritism in any particular direction towards him or any other driver that we may have involvement with, as you know we’ve been involved with other drivers on the grid as well.”
“We’re there to do a job so we’ll select drivers on merit,” he added. “There’s some really good ones out there, Zhou included. Now we’re actually able to actually engage and see what the best driver line-up will be for the team.”
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Antonio Perez Garibay is making headlines, and once again it’s for his predictions regarding his son, Sergio Perez, and the latter’s potential comeback to F1, which, according to Perez Garibay will only happen for one reason, to see Perez Jr. become world champion.
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