{"id":386077,"date":"2026-01-03T18:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T18:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/386077\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T18:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T18:17:08","slug":"f1-teams-warned-cadillac-could-mount-genuine-challenge-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/386077\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 teams warned Cadillac could mount ‘genuine challenge’ in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aston Martin Sporting Director Andy Stevenson has warned that Cadillac could mount a \u201cgenuine challenge\u201d on the Formula 1<\/a> grid in 2026.<\/p>\n

The American squad<\/a> will begin its F1 journey this year after many years of trying to obtain the approval of the FIA and the other 10 teams, under previous guises.<\/p>\n

Cadillac, already boasting a Silverstone facility and a wide array of experienced technical staff \u2013 as well as former Marussia boss Graeme Lowdon \u2013 have fully begun preparations.<\/p>\n

Not only have the team completed race simulations both from a car simulator and technical\/pit wall bent, but have already put in on-track miles via a loaned two-year-old Ferrari SF-23.<\/p>\n

And with a strong simulator line-up to support race drivers Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, Cadillac appears to really mean business ahead of its debut campaign.<\/p>\n

And Stevenson, speaking alongside other high-ranking technical figures ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix in November last year, is not ruling out Cadillac springing some surprises.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I mean, it\u2019s very difficult for us to say how Cadillac are going to manage it,\u201d he told media including Motorsport Week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re obviously putting together a very professional team and they have good finances behind them. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs for Checo, I\u2019m a huge fan of Checo and I\u2019d love to see him relaunch his career.\u00a0He\u2019s a fantastic talent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great race driver and I think it will be great to see him back on the circuit again. So I\u2019m looking forward to that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping that Cadillac don\u2019t go too well, but they\u2019re certainly someone that we\u2019re not going to dismiss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, they are a genuine challenge and from what we\u2019ve seen so far, they\u2019ll be a very professional outfit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cadillac'sCadillac has had its chassis homologated and has begun simulations for both in and out the car for F1 2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t underestimate Cadillac\u2019 with debut coinciding with new F1 regulations<\/p>\n

Cadillac\u2019s entry coincides with F1\u2019s new regulation cycle, which is posing a challenge for all the 11 teams, subsequently conveying a huge breadth of unpredictability.<\/p>\n

This could give the team a boost to its chances, despite its nascency, with developments expected to continue throughout the year, and along with that, fluctuating fortunes for teams.<\/p>\n

Speaking alongside Stevenson, Deputy Technical Director of Mercedes, Simone Resta, agreed with Stevenson\u2019s assessment, saying that Cadillac is \u201cinvesting a lot, they are hiring a lot of people they\u2019re approaching the problem in a nice way, as far as we can see from outside.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Italian added: \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of challenges, like we said, but also they\u2019ll count on a Ferrari power unit, so they\u2019ve got one problem less, let\u2019s say, to look after and I think they can be in the mix.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen in some of the small teams, like it happened, for example, in my previous experience at Haas, that you can start a new cycle with a very small team and do nice things from the beginning, so I wouldn\u2019t underestimate them. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a challenge, but everyone can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 Cadillac promotes ex-Charles Leclerc engineer to new F1 role<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aston Martin Sporting Director Andy Stevenson has warned that Cadillac could mount a \u201cgenuine challenge\u201d on the Formula…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,4228,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-386077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-cadillac","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}