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Cadillac F1 CEO Dan Towriss and Cadillac F1 Team Principal Graeme Lowdon in Monza - Photo: RacePictures.

Cadillac open up on a 'pretty frightening' and ‘incredible challenge’

17:33, 29 Oct

byOlly Darcy

Cadillac's executive engineering consultant Pat Symonds has said that the American team's F1 project for the 2026 season has been "pretty frightening".

"What is absolutely amazing is the commitment that everyone at Cadillac has had to this new team."

- Pat Symonds

After multiple bids to become the newest team on the grid, spearheaded by former F1 driver Michael Andretti, Cadillac were officially granted formal approval to become the 11th team for the 2026 season in March 2025.

Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas have been brought in as a hugely experienced driver lineup for when Cadillac make their debut at the Australian Grand Prix next year, and they will have former Manor boss Graeme Lowdon as their team principal.

The scale of preparing for a full season in the pinnacle of motorsport has been a mighty project, and it is something that Symonds has not taken lightly.

valtteri-bottas-and-sergio-perez-announced-as-cadillac-drivers.jpg

Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez - Photo: Cadillac

"It’s pretty frightening," Symonds explained as Cadillac's preparations continue. "What is absolutely amazing is the commitment that everyone at Cadillac has had to this new team.

"We didn't actually get our official entry until March 7th of this year, and that's 364 days before FP1 in Australia. You cannot put a team together in 364 days. So there was this incredible commitment prior to that to get people on board. One of the things I thought was going to be most challenging was recruitment, and indeed it has been.

"The beginning of the year, we had 159 people in the UK working on a project with support from all of Eric’s people. By the time we got the entry, we were up to about 209, and now we're at 426, so that growth has been really rapid. That’s been very difficult."

Plenty of work still being done

As well as bringing in Bottas and Perez to their lineup, a big move was made to bring in IndyCar driver Colton Herta as their reserve driver, with the American also taking part in the Formula 2 series for Hitech in 2026.

The signings of former Audi Formula Racing chief executive, Adam Baker and ex-Miami Grand Prix president, Tyler Epp, have also highlighted Cadillac's intent going into their debut season in F1.

But the extent of the project is apparent, with Symonds explaining that plenty more work is needed across the coming months.

"When I arrived, I think the first thing that struck me - of course, there are an awful lot of people I knew, a lot of people I've worked with in the past - but what struck me was the real quality of the work that was being done there," the British engineer said.

"There are an awful lot of things that are real front of the grid quality. So it's a challenge. There's an awful lot to do. I'll never say that building an F1 car is easy. It's not easy, but I've done around 40 of them now, so you sort of get to know what has to be done and when it has to be done by.

"The rest of it, building all the infrastructure around it, all the processes, all the procedures, all the logistics, all the buildings, you just don't do it very often. It’s a task that is not only incredibly difficult, but you just don't have the experience of having done it so many times before. That's been a huge challenge that people have risen to so well," concluded Symonds.

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