Cadillac plays down 2026 F1 car advantage

May 1 (GMM) The new Cadillac team has played down suggestions it will head into the 2026 season with a significant advantage.

With its works General Motors power units not arriving until 2029, the Andretti-linked outfit will debut next year with customer Ferrari engines.

As for the car, designers are working on it at Cadillac’s new F1 factory near the Silverstone circuit – and wind tunnel testing at the Toyota facility in Cologne, having taken over from prior tenant McLaren.

The established ten teams were not able to start developing their 2026 cars until the beginning of this year, but due to the long delay in Cadillac being officially confirmed as the eleventh team, there was no such restriction.

“We’ve been in the wind tunnel with the 2026 model the longest,” admitted Cadillac team boss Graeme Lowdon, “but we can’t verify how well the data correlates. We don’t have a car on the racetrack with which we can repeatedly compare our results.”

Some rivals have grumbled about Cadillac’s extra development time, but Lowdon smiled as he told Auto Motor und Sport: “I’m offering all the other teams the opportunity to swap their current development status with our data.

“I’m sure no one would accept that deal,” he added.