Cadillac team principal gives update on F1 progress after official approval

General Motors, under its Cadillac brand, has formally been approved to join the Formula 1 grid in 2026 following an agreement in principle in November. 

This follows a long process of the American team's bid to enter the sport. After receiving the go-ahead from the FIA in October 2023, the team faced an initial roadblock in January 2024 when Formula One Management rejected the Andretti Global-led bid. 

Despite the rejection, Andretti continued to push forward. The team unveiled a Silverstone headquarters, hired former F1 CTO Pat Symonds, and continued in their development of a car suited for the 2026 regulations. 

The turning point came when Michael Andretti stepped down as Andretti Global CEO towards the end of 2024 , allowing TWG Group's Dan Towriss to take over the organisation. This resulted in the team receiving an agreement in principle to join the grid, which has now been formally approved. 

Graeme Lowdon spoke to Formula1.com about the team's progress with just a year to go before its long-awaited debut in the sport. 

“In terms of being ready to race, everything is on schedule.

“We don’t just want to turn up and race, we want to be as competitive as we possibly can be.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15, Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

“From that point of view, for sure we would have loved to have had more time and more people because the more of that you have, the more performance you can build in. But we recognised that the process itself requires a huge amount of energy and effort.

“In terms of timeline for production, we’re happy with where that stands. We’ve been using a lot of time up to now doing a lot of testing and validation of individual components, things like testing of noses, squeeze testing of chassis elements and the like.

“There’s an awful lot of work that has gone on in the background. There’s still a lot of work to do. We’re in a significantly better position now that we’re now a fully-fledged F1 team. We will have access to all the data and information that all the other teams have.

“Now we can really push to come up with the most competitive car that we can. The team is already very sizeable, we’re very comfortable about the position we’re in, in terms of being ready to go racing in 2026.”

There has been a huge amount of speculation about the driver lineup for Cadillac, however, Lowdon confirmed that they are in no rush to announce their selections. He added:

“In terms of timing, we’re not putting any timeline on driver announcements or anything like that but for sure, there will be in time.”