Cadillac’s hardest lap might be the first one: the out-lap to the grid in Melbourne.
As the American marque readies for its 2026 debut, the paddock is already split between sympathy and suspicion. The new outfit – the first built from scratch since Haas in 2016 – has opened its Silverstone base, signed a headline driver pairing in Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez, and is poised to get its first track test in the books. But for some who’ve lived this movie before, simply getting to lights out will be a win.
“Cadillac is going to be a struggle, I think,” warned Bernie Collins, the former McLaren senior performance engineer and Aston Martin strategy chief, now on Sky F1 duty. Collins was in the thick of it when Haas arrived nine years ago and hasn’t forgotten the grind. “I remember walking into the track on Friday morning as the Haas guys were walking out to grab a shower before going back in. That’s how much pain they were in just to get a car on the grid.”
The comparison is fair. Cadillac enters amid the biggest rules reset in a decade: new chassis philosophy, overhauled power unit regs, fresh electronics, sustainable fuels, new tyres—the works. That’s a lot to bite off even if you’re not simultaneously building a team.
Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan didn’t sugarcoat it either. “If you take everything we’ve discussed — new car, new power units, new tyres, new electronics, the sustainable fuels — and then you’re trying to build a team into that, you kind of have an idea of what Cadillac have taken on. Best of luck to them.”
Despite the warnings, there’s real respect for how Cadillac has gone about it. The project has proper funding, a sensible base in the UK talent heartland, and a driver lineup with scars and silverware. Between them, Bottas and Pérez own 16 grand prix wins — 10 for the Finn, six for the Mexican — and more development miles than most garages could dream of. In a brand-new operation, that experience matters as much on a Tuesday in the simulator as it does on a Sunday into Turn 1.
There’s also a pragmatic technical play that could pay off early. Simone Resta, who knows start-ups intimately from his Haas days and is now Mercedes’ strategic development director, sees a focused plan rather than a vanity project. “Cadillac are investing a lot, hiring a lot of people,” he said. “It’s a lot of challenge, but also they count on a Ferrari power unit only. So they’ve got one problem less to look after. I think they can be in the mix. I wouldn’t underestimate them.”
That Ferrari supply decision is a statement: in year one, don’t be a hero, be reliable. The quickest way to irrelevance for a new team is chasing too many fronts at once. Outsourcing the power unit buys time to get the basics right — operations, strategy, pit stops, reliability drills — the stuff that turned Haas into a points-scoring nuisance straight out of the gate back in 2016.
Even so, the tone from rivals is respectful but wary. Aston Martin sporting director Andy Stevenson expects professionalism and persistence to translate into a proper threat. “They’re obviously putting together a very professional team, and they have good finances behind them,” he said. “I’m hoping that Cadillac don’t go too well — but they’re certainly someone we’re not going to dismiss. They are a genuine challenge.”
That’s the needle Cadillac has to thread next year: prove you belong without trying to do everything. Making the grid in Australia in 2026? Collins calls that a victory in itself. The trick is what comes next. Can they hold their nerve when the timelines get tight, when the wind tunnel says “compromise,” when the freight doesn’t arrive, when the world is watching and the stopwatch is unforgiving? That’s where experience in the cockpit should steady the ship.
There will be noise around them — there always is when a new team walks into F1. But the plan feels grown-up: a UK base in Silverstone, a known power unit, and two drivers who know exactly what a good car should feel like. The rest is repetition and resilience.
If Cadillac’s first on-track running is imminent, as expected, the learning starts now. Shakedowns and system checks aren’t glamorous, but for new teams they’re gold dust — exposing gremlins before the world sees them, teaching a new factory how to breathe under pressure. There’s no trophy for a smooth rollout, but plenty of evidence that stumbling through it can haunt your season.
The paddock will keep its eyebrow raised until the first points are banked. That’s fine. Cadillac doesn’t need to quiet the room today. It just needs to show up on time, keep the car in one piece, and let Bottas and Pérez do what veterans do: set a baseline, build the feedback loop, and chip away at the midfield.
Get to Melbourne. Then get to work. In year one of a new era, that’s a perfectly respectable plan.
