Cadillac has ‘67% of team in place’ ahead of 2026 F1 debut

• Team will hire US-based staff once HQ in Indiana is operational
• Cadillac “still some way off” deciding driver lineup for next year
• Team principal Graeme Lowdon says Cadillac braced to finish last in debut season

Cadillac Formula One team principal Graeme Lowdon has revealed that around 67 per cent of the necessary staff are already in place ahead of the team’s debut next season.

Although the entry, backed by General Motors (GM) and TWG Global, was only officially approved in March this year, significant progress has already been made in building the team’s foundations. Notably, Cadillac received delivery of their first floor to 2026 specifications in January.

“We’re 109 days into this process, we’ve got another 250-something to the first race [in Melbourne], so around about a third of the way through already,” Lowdon told select media, including BlackBook Motorsport.

“And yet we’ve got around 67 per cent of the team members in place.”

Cadillac are aiming for around 600 employees by the time they begin racing in Australia in early March. With about two-thirds of that target already met, the US-based outfit is unlikely to be the smallest team on the grid.

Crucially, their recruitment of experienced personnel has led to departures from existing teams – a development that may have further irritated the Formula One grid, especially after those teams previously tried to block Cadillac’s entry.

“We want people who want to work here,” noted Lowdon. “But I don’t see any downside to the greater Formula One offering.

“These are highly paid jobs, both here and in the US, so for me there’s no downside. We’ll lose people to other teams as well because all teams are different. Some people might not like what we offer but, at the moment, we’re finding a lot of people that do.”

Related posts

• Cadillac team principal: Commercial interest ‘outstripping capacity’ ahead of F1 debut
  
• Breaking down F1’s 2025 sponsorship portfolio
  

The majority of the workforce will be UK-based until Cadillac’s headquarters in Fishers, Indiana, becomes fully operational. Once that milestone is reached, Lowdon confirmed the team will begin hiring US-based staff, with some engineering work already underway at the General Motors Technical Center in Charlotte.

With all eyes on next year, Lowdon acknowledged that “there’s a lot to do” ahead of the team’s debut, though Cadillac is already well underway with the necessary tests for their new car. In fact, a 2026 chassis, seen by media in attendance, was being worked on in the factory at the time.

With so much still to be done in building the team’s off-track operations, Lowdon also admitted that locking in a driver lineup wasn’t a top priority and wouldn’t be confirmed for some time.

“Nothing’s decided yet, we know who’s on the market, we’ve got a good idea of what we need, but we’re still some way off,” he said.

Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez are reportedly the frontrunners to be the team’s driver pairing next season, with Pérez expected to bring substantial commercial support to Cadillac, who have so far only announced Tommy Hilfiger as a partner.

And while it’s still too early to set on-track expectations, Lowdon was realistic, stating that “you have to assume that any new team coming in is going to be last”.