Cadillac F1 team "is exhausted" before 2026 season start: "They're done"

Formula 1 pundit Will Buxton has suggested that Cadillac's campaign is already facing challenges caused by not only its transatlantic work patterns, but also by the work ethic expected from its United States management. 

“The team is exhausted. Like, they're done," he said on the Up to Speed podcast.

After a successful stint of testing in Bahrain, the American team begins its 2026 season in March as F1's 11th team following its approval in early 2025. Backed by General Motors and TWG Motorsport, there's no lack of resources. And with Ferrari supplying its power units while the outfit works on its own to be used towards the end of the decade, it's in a solid position to begin.

An experienced driver pairing in Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas also strengthens its place.

But Buxton, talking with David Coulthard and Naomi Schiff, isn't so confident in the team's complicated setup, and questions whether its culture is burning people out. With the outfit spread over Fishers, Indiana, Concord, North Carolina, and the United Kingdom, the Briton identified weaknesses stemming from this setup. 

"Having three bases is potentially not an optimised strategy for any team, let alone a brand new team," he said. "And you have two distinct issues, I think, with the way in which Cadillac, as an American team will fare. One is the American work culture, which is that there is no time off.

"You work, you keep working, you grind yourself into the ground. Family, what family? You work.

"But you've also got the F1 mentality, which is: don't like it, go do something else because we'll find somebody younger and cheaper who will do it - do the job that you don't want to do or you aren't willing to do."

According to his sources, the team is starting to struggle before the season has even begun.

“The team is exhausted. Like, they're done. And the season hasn't even started.”

Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing

Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images

Cadillac is well aware of the challenge it faces entering the championship alongside 10 highly experienced and motivated teams.

"You have to assume that any new team coming in is going to be last," team principal Graeme Lowdon said last year. "Otherwise, what's gone wrong somewhere else? ... We're trying to be as competitive as we possibly can but we're realistic. We know how difficult it is."

Regarding the struggles that will come from being spread across time zones, it has created a management structure from the ground up that focuses on limiting the need for communication between too many layers of management. 

"We need an engineer here (in Britain) talking to an engineer in Charlotte and another one in Warren, Michigan, or eventually in Fishers (Indiana). So we've looked to have a very, very flat management structure.

"It's highly modelled on the Apollo project ... OK, we're not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes."

Mirroring this feeling, the outfit revealed its car's livery to audio of President John F. Kennedy's now legendary 1962 speech on going to the moon. When the Australian Grand Prix weekend begins, we'll be closer to knowing where it will land.