A rival team is tipped to supply a car for Cadillac F1 testing later this year as the American outfit prepares for its highly anticipated debut in the 2026 Formula 1 World Championship.
As the 11th team to join the elite racing series, Cadillac has outlined ambitious plans to hit the ground running including a unique approach to testing that involves utilizing a rival team’s older F1 car.
This strategy is a critical part of the team’s preparation to ensure its competitive entry into the sport, while also highlighting dedication to building a strong foundation from the outset.
As a new entrant without existing Formula 1 machinery Cadillac faces the challenge of meeting the Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) programme regulations. The TPC allows teams to run cars that are at least two years old for up to 20 days of testing annually.
Since Cadillac’s own car – designed to comply with the 2026 F1 regulations overhaul – will only be ready once pre-season testing begins in late January next year, the team cannot rely on using its own contender for early testing.
To overcome this limitation, Cadillac will collaborate with one of its established rivals by using their older car for testing purposes.
Although the team has not officially named which competitor will provide the car, speculation strongly points to Ferrari being the likely partner.
The iconic Italian marque is set to supply power units for Cadillac F1 cars until 2029, which makes this partnership logical and strategically sound.
Following the confirmation of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez as Cadillac drivers for 2026 F1, Team Principal Graeme Lowdon highlighted their testing plans this year.
“We’ll be introducing Cadillac F1 testing as well this year,” said Lowdon. “Obviously, we have to work with others to be able to do that but that’s perfectly allowable under the regulations.
“We just have a plan to steadily build up so that when we get to Melbourne, we hit the ground running. The drivers themselves play such an important part in it.
“The one thing I can tell you, just spending time with them is – again, I don’t want to put words in their mouths but there’s a huge amount of enthusiasm to get going.”
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Lowdon also revealed Cadillac’s staff are already deeply involved in race-style simulations and team integration exercises, simulating entire race weekends from Thursday to Sunday.
This comprehensive preparation aims to give the team’s personnel invaluable experience and confidence so that when the team arrives for its first Grand Prix in Melbourne, everything will function smoothly.
“We don’t have a TPC car or a current car that we can operate, but we are already simulating race events,” he added.
“The next one that we’re doing is Monza and we simulate it as if it is a complete race weekend from start to finish with full integration of everybody in the team from Thursday all the way through to Sunday.
“We’ve got a very clear plan in our build-up to Melbourne next year and it doesn’t involve just simulating races, which is really important.
“The last one we simulated, we probably had 50 or 60 engineering people fully involved over the whole weekend, both in the UK and the US, all getting used to working with each other.”
This means Sergio Perez will be the only driver available for testing since Valtteri Bottas is currently under contract to serve as Mercedes reserve driver until end of the year. However, Lowdon said he is negotiating his early release.
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