![\"MELBOURNE,](\"https:\/\/platform.sbnation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/gettyimages-2265346732.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0,100,100\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – MARCH 08: Sergio Perez of Mexico and Cadillac F1 Team and Valtteri Bottas of Finland and Cadillac F1 Team on the drivers parade prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Australia at Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit on March 08, 2026 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Mark Thompson\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n
The focus then turned to Cadillac\u2019s driver lineup.<\/p>\n
As anyone who has spent time around F1 knows, driver market speculation is a huge deal in the sport. With just 20 seats available, competition for those spots is tight, and the news that a new team was joining the grid not only offered two more seats, but more room for speculation.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Cadillac went with two very experienced drivers, selecting Valtteri Bottas and Sergio P\u00e9rez for those spots. Both came with race-winning experience, and championship experience, Bottas having helped Mercedes to several Constructors\u2019 Championships while P\u00e9rez was part of a Red Bull team that won two titles as well. And both drivers were alongside teammates who won Drivers\u2019 Championships, Bottas with Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes while P\u00e9rez was alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull.<\/p>\n
Lowdon pointed to that experience when I asked about those two drivers, but also pointed to their experience having driven for multiple teams along their F1 journeys.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think essentially, as you say, it was no surprise when the announcement came out that we\u2019d gone for drivers that weren\u2019t just experienced on the track, but were experienced in multiple teams,\u201d began Lowdon. \u201cI think it was seven or eight teams between the two of them, and championship-winning teams, as well. Red Bull. Mercedes. So what we\u2019re getting with that driver lineup was not just two very fast drivers who know how to drive the car, and also they know how to give instant technical feedback, which is really important, we\u2019re developing this product together, but they also knew how to gel the mechanics together. The engineers. And that comes from experience of not just one team, but multiple teams, and that\u2019s really, really important, I think.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then also, it is important to surround yourself with the best people that you can possibly find, and then you encourage them to push and to challenge you and we look for that in a driver as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
From where Lowdon sits, both P\u00e9rez and Bottas still have the \u201cfire in the belly\u201d despite that experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got fire still. There\u2019s fire in the belly and they\u2019re enthusiastic, which again, is very important. And they wanna push and they wanna develop, but they don\u2019t wanna push too hard, because again, we\u2019re a very young team and if we get that calculation out of sync, then it can cause more problems than you would want. So, with Valtteri and Checo, right from the first shakedown, I was just super happy with their feedback, how they\u2019ve encouraged everyone in the team, how they\u2019ve pushed for better performance, but pushed at the right level and I couldn\u2019t talk more highly of them Mark,\u201d added Lowdon.<\/p>\n
Those two are not the only experienced hands Cadillac added as drivers. The team selected Zhou Guanyu as its reserve driver, someone Lowdon knows well. The Cadillac boss formerly served as the driver\u2019s agent, until Lowdon moved into this role.<\/p>\n
The Cadillac team principal outlined how his experience was also \u201cimportant\u201d for the new team, but also declared he would not hesitate for a second before putting him in one of the cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, really important. He\u2019s our reserve driver. I would have no qualms putting him in a race car because I\u2019ve seen how fast he can be,\u201d said Lowdon. \u201cHe was Valtteri\u2019s teammate at Sauber, so we have direct comparison there. He\u2019s a driver who should be on the grid, in any case, in my view. I think he brings a lot to Formula One, and he\u2019s a very, very rapid, race car driver.\u201d<\/p>\n
The one difference between the three drivers, was that Zhou did not have the experience of driving for multiple teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor our selection, the one thing he didn\u2019t have was that multiple team angle that I spoke of before. He\u2019s very experienced in Formula One, especially as a reserve. There aren\u2019t many reserve drivers who\u2019ve done three years of racing at their absolute sharpest in Formula One,\u201d added Lowdon. \u201cBut he hadn\u2019t had that experience of working at lots and lots of different teams, which gives the other two that edge in terms of what we need in building the team and in building the team we\u2019re making the car go faster and, and so on and so forth.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe plays an active part in all the engineering meetings, and he has a contribution to say, and he has that very recent experience, as well, and also it\u2019s a pleasure to have him in the team, as well, he\u2019s a really nice guy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, you can be nice and fast, and all three of our drivers, I think fit that bill.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is a fourth driver to consider, one that fans here in the United States know well.<\/p>\n
Colton Herta, the team\u2019s test and development driver.<\/p>\n
Herta carved a name for himself in IndyCar, and has been linked with a move to F1 for years. The first time he came close to such a move was during 2021, when he was tapped for a move to F1 with Alfa Romeo. But those negotiations between Sauber and Andretti Autosport failed to reach a conclusion.<\/p>\n
McLaren then signed him as a reserve for 2022, until the Red Bull family came calling, with an interest in signing him to potentially drive for the junior team (then Alpha Tauri, now Visa Cash App Racing Bulls). But with Herta shy of the requisite points on his FIA Super License \u2014 and the FIA unwilling to grant an exemption \u2014 that bid also fell short.<\/p>\n
But now his F1 journey has been given new life, as he has signed on with Cadillac as a test driver while also competing in F2 for Hitech, with Cadillac\u2019s backing. Ahead of our discussion, the team confirmed that Herta would be participating in four different Free Practice 1 (FP1) sessions with Cadillac during the F1 season, and he could secure the points he needs for the FIA Super License this year through his finish in F2 alone, or combined with those four FP1 sessions. Drivers can secure a point for an FP1 session provided they complete at least 100 kilometers during the practice session.<\/p>\n
I asked Lowdon what the team is hoping to see from Herta both in F2, and in those four practice sessions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll do four FP1 sessions for the team, and it\u2019s a great opportunity for him to get to grips with some Formula One machinery, get used to working with the engineers,\u201d started Lowdon. \u201cIt is a huge step, Formula One, in terms of the engineering structure.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou go from pretty much having one race engineer and performance engineer in F2 to literally F1 teams of over 1000 people. So you get that experience, so there we just want to see him gain that experience and develop and play his part as well. The FP1s are part of the competition of Formula One as well, so we will look for something back there as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lowdon then turned to F2, and noted that what the young driver is attempting there is evidence that he truly is a \u201cproper racing driver.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of Formula Two, I take my hat off to Colton,\u201d Lowdon started.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s done something that some drivers shy away from, which is, he\u2019s bet on himself, and I love that. That\u2019s what a proper racing driver does. When it was first mentioned that he might be doing Formula Two, somebody said, \u2018[w]ell, you know, I\u2019m not sure if he wants to do that, for a reputation point of view,\u2019 and I thought, \u2018if that\u2019s the case, he\u2019s not a race driver.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he does want to do it, and I really love that kind of, \u2018I wanna do this because I wanna learn the tracks, I wanna learn the tires, I wanna learn how the Grand Prix weekend works.\u2019 Because he does want to be in Formula One, and that\u2019s what a racer would do,\u201d stated Lowdon. \u201cAnd you could see from the reaction he got from other drivers on the grid, at the Grand Prix, drivers on the grid who\u2019ve raced with him before in junior Formula and the like, they appreciated that as well, and that meant something to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Miami Grand Prix and looking ahead<\/p>\n
As our time drew to a close, the conversation turned to this weekend.<\/p>\n
After a long layoff \u2014 due to F1 canceling both the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix due to the ongoing conflict in Iran \u2014 F1 returns this week with the Miami Grand Prix. While I will not be heading there for the first time in a few years, Cadillac will be heading to South Beach.<\/p>\n
For their first home race.<\/p>\n
I asked Lowdon about that, and about the team bringing an upgrade package to the Miami Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
\u201dWe can\u2019t wait, is the honest answer,\u201d Lowdon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiami, it\u2019s such a cool place to go. The circuit is so innovative, running around the NFL stadium there, everything is just super cool, in Miami, so it\u2019s great for us to be there. It\u2019s great for it to be the first home race for the team. We know ourselves already that there\u2019s a real growing fan base, and it\u2019s fantastic for us to see that, it really is. We said from the start, we want to offer something a bit different,\u201d continued Lowdon.<\/p>\n
The Cadillac boss then walked me through what they are trying to accomplish with a growing fan base here in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a team that is headquartered in the U.S. We\u2019re investing in these fantastic new facilities up in Indianapolis, which will be the team\u2019s headquarters, and so this is an opportunity for us to really get to know the fans in the U.S. a lot more, as well. And even last year when I was traveling to races, it really took me by surprise how often I got stopped on the street because I was wearing a Cadillac shield on my shirt, and just so many fans were expressing, actually thanks, in some way that that people have put this team together, and in a lot of instances, new fans, new to the sport,\u201d described Lowdon.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I just thought, you know, it\u2019s exactly what we wanted to do. Throw our doors open to diehard race fans, new fans, come and follow this journey that Cadillac is on, because it ain\u2019t gonna happen again, and you can be part of it as well. And so that\u2019s kind of the approach that we\u2019re trying to do. A lot of fan-friendly things in Miami, it\u2019s a cool place to do that as well, we\u2019ve got a lot of guests coming as well, and our ownership, so, yeah, everyone, everyone\u2019s looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lowdon then addressed the upgrades the team is bringing to Hard Rock Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo answer the final bit of your question, yes, we\u2019re bringing some upgrades. Because, in terms of targets for this year, it\u2019s super difficult to put any kind of target on anything other than what we can target, which is constant improvement. And so this upgrade package is one of the first steps on that, and we want to show the fans that we\u2019re closing in to the next team in front, and then keep going, and keep aiming for the next one in front, and just keep going. And the improvement is what I think we should be measured on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Our conversation ended with one final question.<\/p>\n
What would make 2026 a success story for Cadillac? Would it be improvement? Points? Dare we say a podium result?<\/p>\n
\u201dAll of the above would be fantastic, but I think realistically, the most important thing, and it\u2019s the one that\u2019s within our control, is constant improvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single day we come in here and ask the question: What can we do today to make this team better?<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd everyone in our growing team is saying the same, and it\u2019s not easy to communicate how difficult it is to do this, because the fans quite rightly see two cars on the grid, and kind of everything else looks easy, and it\u2019s not, it\u2019s so difficult, and just being there is not enough,\u201d continued Lowdon. \u201cWe have to just constantly improve, and that\u2019s really where we\u2019re gonna grind and focus on what we can do, constantly improve, and then hopefully at some stage look up and, you know, and if we\u2019re in the mix, then that means that we\u2019re going forward, and as I said before, hopefully bring in a lot of fans along with us for the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
That journey continues this week for Cadillac.<\/p>\n
This time in front of their home fans in Miami.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 returns to action this week, with the Miami Grand Prix. And for one team in particular,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-634361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634361","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=634361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}