Cadillac off to a 'really, really positive start' – Lowdon

Cadillac has delivered a good platform to progress from both in terms of team operations and car performance during the opening days of F1 pre-season testing in Bahrain, says team principal Graeme Lowdon.

The new entrant into Formula 1 didn’t even have confirmation that it would be on the grid in 2026 this time last year, but completed a shakedown at Silverstone prior to the private week of running in Barcelona. Now, on its first public outing alongside the other 10 teams in Bahrain, Cadillac competed more than 100 laps on each day of the test – more than Alpine, Mercedes and Aston Martin – and Lowdon says the way the team is operating is a major positive.

“I'm really, really pleased with the progress, and also the problem-solving as well,” Lowdon said. “But also the way that we've gone about solving problems as a team has been really in a very calm manner. In the garage, you see that. It's very easy to assess it in the garage, but also in the engineering meetings and the like.

“And actually, it's one of the attributes about the team that I really noticed, first of all, at the shakedown in Silverstone. We walked in the garage that morning, and what I saw was a calm, collected Formula 1 team ready to go to work. And if you've got that as a platform, you can really, really build. Whereas if you walk in a garage and it’s mayhem and chaos and whatever, you might still go fast, but you'll hit a ceiling eventually.

“We've always said that as a team, we've got bold ambition. We're realistic and we're grounded, and we know how difficult this game is, but we didn't want to just be here. We really want to try and build something, and I feel that we've got that. I think the car reflects the team. The car's a good platform we can build on. I think the team is a really good, solid platform that we can build on as well.”

Lowdon points out that covering more than 1000 miles in the Bahrain test provides Cadillac with a massive amount of data that it has never had as a new team, and the early signs are that there are no significant areas of weakness in the car.

“If we had a serious or obvious reliability issue, then that would be a massive concern," he said. "Equally, if we had a really predominant handling issue or something like that, then that would be a concern. And we generally don't have any of that. I feel like we've got a platform that we can really build on here.

“What makes pre-season testing so interesting is nobody really knows where the pecking order is, as you say. We're very realistic about the performance, and just how difficult it is to generate that performance. And also very realistic about where some of the teams are going to be.

“But I firmly believe now we've got a platform that, as a team, we can really start moving forward on. And I think that's probably the most that you could ever ask from a new team, unless it's some complete miracle thing.

“We're dealing with the same laws of physics as every other team. We’re in a cost-capped environment. We've had to expend a huge amount of effort and energy as a team just to start as a new team. And I think to absorb all of that and have a platform that I feel we can build on, I think that's a really, really positive start.”