Johnny Herbert: Cadillac and Alpine braced for bruising F1 2026 reset
Johnny Herbert isn’t sugar-coating the 2026 reset. With smaller, lighter cars, active aero on both wings and a 50/50 split between electric power and sustainable fuel coming in, the three-time grand prix winner reckons two names will have the roughest landing: Cadillac and Alpine.
Speaking alongside Damon Hill on the Stay on Track podcast, Herbert backed Hill’s view that Cadillac — joining as F1’s 11th team — will be “playing catch-up for a long time.”
“Big time, yes,” Herbert replied. “It’s a whole new learning experience. Yes, there’s going to be experienced people there, but it’s a whole different scenario when you’re bringing a whole new team… and you’re up against the greats of the sport — Ferraris, Mercedes, Red Bulls, McLarens.”
Unlike Audi, which steps in with the bones of the Sauber operation beneath it, Cadillac’s programme has been assembled from scratch. There’s ballast in the driver room — Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez have 16 wins between them — but Herbert’s warning shot was clear: expect a slow burn.
“Have they got enough time for that to all come together? We’re all going to be talking, what, four or five years, probably,” he said. “They’ve got two great drivers, very useful for their input from Mercedes and Red Bull, but I think they’re going to be fighting for those last few rows, which is going to be a bit tough for them.”
If Cadillac’s challenge is obvious, Alpine’s is messier. The Enstone team endured a grim 2025 and turned early attention to the new ruleset. That reset includes a big call under the engine cover: with Renault shelving its 2026 power unit, Alpine becomes a Mercedes customer for the next cycle.
Hill joked that getting a Mercedes power unit is one way to turn chaos into positivity. Herbert pushed back.
“Yeah, but it doesn’t fix everything,” he said. “It may be very, very useful, but I think there’s more fundamental issues. It’s the whole package. You’ve got to have the right ingredients for the electrification to work with the combustion, and then you need the right aerodynamics. We’ve got all the technology with the active wings as well. There’s a hell of a lot of new things coming in, and they’re not coming off what I would say a strong last couple of years.”
That reads like a list Alpine already knows by heart. Pierre Gasly admitted the 2026 project was the light at the end of a long 2025 tunnel, calling it the season in which he scored the fewest points of his F1 career. Rookie teammate Franco Colapinto struck a more upbeat tone late last year, saying the early simulations for the ’26 car showed a stronger base — with the usual caveat that wind tunnels don’t score points.
Herbert’s broader theme tracks with history. Regulation resets can flip scripts, but they rarely reward clean-sheet operations on Day 1. Mercedes detonated 2014 thanks to a decade of groundwork and a fully integrated PU-chassis effort; 2026, by design, makes that integration even more complex. Energy recovery strategy will be as decisive as drag maps, and active aero will separate the truly clever from the merely tidy.
That’s why the ex-steward’s timeframes matter. Cadillac’s job isn’t just building a car; it’s building a culture, a supply chain, a fault-finding rhythm — all while learning the dark arts of modern F1. Bottas and Perez will steady the ship. But points in year one? That’s ambitious.
For Alpine, the engine switch removes one variable and inserts three others: packaging, cooling and control systems integration. A customer Mercedes unit won’t mask inefficiencies elsewhere, and there’s a lot of elsewhere to fix. If Enstone emerges with a sharp platform and coherent leadership, that power unit choice could look inspired. If not, it’ll look like a very expensive sticking plaster.
It’s easy to be gloomy in January. It’s also when the most honest assessments tend to surface. Herbert’s is exactly that — a reality check from someone who’s seen the sport chew up best-laid plans. The beauty (and brutality) of 2026 is that nobody really knows until the cars run together.
But if you’re sketching early-season storylines, here’s one to pencil in: Cadillac learning the ropes in the lower half, Alpine trying to climb out of a rut with a star customer engine and a lot to prove. The giants will still be there, and they’ll still be fast. The question is who closes the gap fastest when the rulebook gets thrown in the air.
