{"id":470329,"date":"2026-02-10T09:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T09:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/470329\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T09:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T09:48:10","slug":"why-cadillac-isnt-aiming-for-points-in-f1-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/470329\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Cadillac isn\u2019t aiming for points in F1 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new Cadillac<\/a> Formula 1 team is keeping expectations in check ahead of its upcoming grand prix debut.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> and Valtteri Bottas<\/a>, and customer Ferrari<\/a> powertrains until the team produces its own engines.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Asked whether the team would aim for points, CEO Dan Towriss preferred to play this prospect down: \u201cFor me, points would be kind of an arbitrary target.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecondly, 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Sergio <\/p>\n

Sergio Perez, Cadillac<\/p>\n

Photo by: Cadillac Communications<\/p>\n

In comparison, some established teams took to the track much later, with Aston Martin\u2019s car debuting at Barcelona in the evening of 29 January, while Williams<\/a> missed the Catalan test altogether and was unable to put its new challenger through its paces util 4 February.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, Barcelona was a lot about shakedown and just testing systems,\u201d Towriss said. \u201cBecause 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs 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 \u2013 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Towriss\u2019 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\u2019s astute\u00a0\u2013 and controversial\u00a0\u2013 interpretation of the new power unit regulations regarding the internal combustion engine\u2019s compression ratio.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

No fewer than four teams use Mercedes<\/a> powertrains, including the brand\u2019s works team, reigning champion McLaren<\/a>, Williams and Alpine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s obviously a lot of dialogue amongst the power unit manufacturers,\u201d Towriss pointed out. \u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new Cadillac Formula 1 team is keeping expectations in check ahead of its upcoming grand prix debut.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,3550,817,813,816,85,240247],"class_list":["post-470329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cadillac","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports","tag-why-cadillac-isnu2019t-aiming-for-points-in-f1-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}