Cadillac wants to "earn the respect" of F1 rivals in 2026

Cadillac consultant Pat Symonds says F1's 11th team wants to "earn the respect" of its more experienced rivals with how the squad tackles its debut season.

While the true pecking order will take some time to fully emerge, Cadillac doesn't appear to be completely out of the ballpark - the 107% rule that team principal Graeme Lowdon's previous start-up team Manor had to battle on a regular basis seems to be a distant memory.

But rather than set itself a hard target of championship positions or points scored, an outcome it can't fully control, Cadillac hopes to become an established, respected F1 organisation over the course of 2026, keeping its loftier ambitions on the long term.

"To be sort of numeric about it is quite difficult," said F1 veteran and Cadillac's engineering consultant Pat Symonds after the team's drivers Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez completed a total of 107 laps on the first day of the Bahrain test. "But one thing that's really important is that we earn the respect of the other teams.

"That's particularly important to me, because I think we deserve that respect. And that doesn't just go with the car, it goes with our whole operation. And it was very gratifying in Barcelona that we got a lot of compliments from other teams about our garage layout, how we prepared the cars and everything like that.

"When the other teams are looking at all their spy photos, as everyone does, I hope they'll have some respect for elements of the design of the car as well."

Photo by: Clive Mason/Getty Images

On the flipside, Symonds felt scrutinising other teams' car designs at Barcelona's shakedown had made Cadillac feel better about its own design choices, having not missed an obvious design trend.

"Yeah, I think so," he said. "There are a lot of very nice parts on our car. I was a little bit surprised when I saw all the cars in Barcelona, and the diversity of detail. It was more than I probably expected, which is a great thing, but we don't appear to be out of bed on anything.

"We've obviously done a lot of competitor analysis, and we feel pretty comfortable with where we are and where we're developing to. There are lots of nice parts on the other cars, but just what I'd expect, really."

Having said that, Symonds vowed the team would take an "aggressive" approach to in-season development and promised the as-of-yet unnamed, Ferrari-powered car would receive significant upgrades for the first race in Melbourne.

"I think we've got a very robust process for that," he said when asked by Motorsport.com how confident he felt about Cadillac's ability to develop its launch car over the course of 2026.

"It's something very impressive with the team. Within the budget cap we know what we've got to do. We've already planned out quite an aggressive development program.

"Even in Melbourne, you'll see a car that's reasonably different to this one in many areas, as you will up and down the pit lane. So I'm pretty confident we can deliver on that."