Cadillac Insists Key F1 Preparation Task "Doesn't Really Matter"

Cadillac Formula 1 team principal Graeme Lowdon has insisted testing a car ahead of its entry to the championship "doesn't really matter".

The American outfit will be the 11th team on the grid from next season after a long battle to join and, while Audi also enters, Cadillac will be the only team not entering with previous of running a car in the championship, with the German manufacturer taking over the Sauber operation, rather than starting from scratch.

Lowdon has previously revealed a plan to borrow a car from an incumbent team which would likely be Ferrari given the Italian marque will provide power units for Cadillac in its first few seasons before an in-house unit is produced to complete a TPC [Testing of Previous Cars] run, though this still hangs in the balance.

Will the TPC test happen?

The first test for the 2026 season will take place at the end of January and Cadillac is facing a race against time to get track running in before then.

It has revealed a development roster of former IndyCar champion Simon Pagenaud, Corvette works' driver Charlie Eastwood and F1 test and reserve veteran Pietro Fittipaldi to assist signed race drivers Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, and reserve driver Colton Herta in preparing the team for its first assault on F1 — though Bottas remains contracted to Mercedes and is unlikely to test until next year.

But while the TPC has not yet been set, Lowdon has revealed the car is not what the team is interested in putting through its paces, but rather the actual personnel.

"We've been looking at the testing a team can do under the TPC rules," said Lowdon, per Motorsport.com. "We don't have a previous car, but also the title is a slightly misnomer, because we don't actually need to test a car, so it doesn't really matter."

The future doesn’t build itself. These are the people powering our journey to the grid 💪 pic.twitter.com/5aCNUWF0Bp
— Cadillac Formula 1 Team (@Cadillac_F1) October 10, 2025

"Actually, current team testing is kind of what we're interested in. We want to use a car, because in all of the simulations that we mentioned, we try and make it as real to life as possible. I think everyone gets a little bit wrongly concerned, that in some way we can get an advantage by testing someone else's car or something. But we're not testing the car, we're testing the people.

"Yes, we are looking to gain the advantage, but not from anything to do with the car. The advantages that we want is for our mechanics to have the same experience that all the mechanics in this pit lane are having every day working with each car."

Cadillac has been running race simulations across the last months to prepare for 2026, with race control centers across its United States and United Kingdom-based headquarters being put through their paces.

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