Cadillac F1 CEO Dan Towriss has made it clear that the newcomers expect to be battling with other teams in F1 2026.
Towriss admits that Cadillac anticipate being behind from an aerodynamic point of view at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, but will judge success this season by how many teams it can overtake in what will likely be a relentless F1 2026 development war. Cadillac plans to start learning more about its car in Bahrain testing, and begin pushing the performance envelope.
Cadillac F1 expecting to compete against other teams
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In a year of major change for Formula 1, Cadillac arrives on the 2026 grid as the sport’s new, 11th team.
Cadillac is the first team formed from scratch to join the sport since fellow American squad Haas arrived in 2016.
Cadillac will be powered by a Ferrari engine, ahead of a planned future switch to works team status, as General Motors continues development of its own power unit.
Having hit the track for the first time in a Silverstone shakedown, Cadillac were in action at the unofficial Barcelona test.
Prior to the start of official pre-season testing in Bahrain, Cadillac completed a filming day at the Bahrain International Circuit, showing off its popular black and white livery.
In conversation with PlanetF1.com and other media outlets, Towriss was asked what an acceptable level of performance would be for Cadillac in its first F1 season.
“I think there’s still a lot of unanswered questions going into that,” said Towriss.
“I think we’ll learn a lot more over the next two weeks of testing in Bahrain of just where the cars are.
“For us, I think Barcelona was a lot about shakedown and just testing systems. Because everything we’re building is for the first time. So it’s the first steering column, the first fuel system, you know, all the pieces. And so, a real focus on reliability.
“We’ll start to see where the performance shakes out.
“I think from 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, and so 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, and we’ll see where things shake out.
“I mean, again, we’ve got a lot of changes, tyres, chassis, power unit, the drivers are going to have to drive these cars differently. So there are a lot of questions that still have to
be answered.”
Towriss believes that “just making it to Barcelona was an accomplishment in its own right” for Cadillac, having seen the “scale” and “complexity” of what goes into a Formula 1 car.
In Bahrain, Cadillac will look to explore what its first F1 challenger is truly capable of.
“It was a good shakedown week for us, and so we’re excited now to really start to work on the performance of the car, start to push the limits, see what it can do,” said Towriss.
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Cadillac has one of the most experienced driver line-ups anywhere on the Formula 1 grid to lean on as preparations for its big debut in Melbourne continue.
Cadillac united Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas for its first driver pairing, that duo boasting a combined 16 grand prix wins, 10 for Bottas and six for Perez.
“Checo has been very instrumental in providing feedback on the car. The drivers are obviously an important element, both Valtteri and Checo,” said Towriss. “That’s why we went with experienced drivers.
“And so now we’re going to continue to take their feedback and accelerate the development of this car to extract the performance that’s there.
“I’m very impressed by the team and very pleased with the progress thus far.”
Asked by PlanetF1.com to expand on Bottas’ influence to this point, Towriss added: “I think Checo has had a little more time in the car, just out of the gate between the shakedown at Silverstone, as well as the time in Barcelona.
“I think we’ll get a lot of feedback this week from both of the drivers, but the experience that they have is invaluable to the team as we start to make progress with this car.”
Despite Perez and Bottas possessing more than 500 grand prix starts combined, this is a new era for Formula 1, and so, there are learnings for this F1 veteran duo too.
The F1 2026 generation of Formula 1 car has less downforce than the ground effect machines, something which all drivers must adapt to.
“There’s just less load on this car than what Formula 1 cars have had in the past,” Towriss noted. “And so, our drivers are no different in that everyone will be learning to deal with that.”
Having touched on Cadillac’s anticipation that it will take the fight to rival teams in F1 2026, Towriss was asked whether scoring points would represent success for the team.
He brushed that off as a target which would be too “short-term” in thinking for the team’s approach.
“I think it’s really unknown,” said Towriss.
“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. I think that’s really how we’re thinking about it.
“And then 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. What we’re looking at is being successful in the sport over the long-term.”
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