Yes, there is no shortcut and it takes about 5 years to make a competitive hybrid power unit. Ask Honda .
I read CadillacF1 has a contract with Ferrari up until 2028 by which CadillacF1 will become a full works team in 2028 with their own PPU (powertrain power unit). This of course is subject to change. I wonder if HAAS F1 will also drop the Ferrari PPU in 2028 and go with CadillacF1's PPU since HAAS F1 is American in order to keep both F1 organizations American. We shall see.
Both have already a multi-national flavor and workforce. Do the research. They have bases and development units outside of the US. They do not exist in a vacuum by any means and races in the US are not lacking attendance- "American" team or not. Haas is pragmatic and will keep or take the PU that offers good performance first rather than origin. RedBull have Japanese members on their powertrain division. Are they Austrian or Thai or UK. No one really cares at all.
Lowdon: Cadillac could sign an American F1 driver - but only on merit Now Cadillac’s spot in F1 for 2026 onwards is secure, the championship's newest team is on the hunt for its drivers “We definitely select on merit," said Lowdon. "Formula 1, it's not a playground, this is the pinnacle of world motorsport. “I think in terms of timing, it's kind of a little bit odd because we're out of sync with the other teams, we weren't in the driver market during the fairly critical last round, so certain drivers are tied up for certain periods.
Mario thats not much of a compliment lol!! Lawson didnt nearly kill Charles or any other driver 'going for it'! Mario Andretti: "Lawson is making Sergio Perez look good" for Cadillac F1 Image Unavailable, Please Login
Was able to outqualify LH 30% of the time and has more wins. A better choice than Checo is Bottas. The key advantage for Bottas vs Perez in the 2026 F1 return race Sergio Perez has fired his first shot in the race to earn a Formula 1 return with Cadillac in 2026. But the ex-Red Bull driver did so from afar. Another multiple race winner eying a quick return to race action is taking a very different approach by remaining active in the paddock
Why do new teams always seem to hire slow over the hill drivers? What is the value of their "experience" if they don't have what it takes to stay on the grid with a good team?
Do you think top drivers or title contenders like Verstappen, Norris, Leclerc or Russell would go to a brand new team ? I remember Emerson Fittipaldi and Jacques Villeneuve doing that, and look at the result !!
The instability of F1's admission of new teams is what I believe discourages top drivers from signing on. Mercedes was on a losing streak when Hamilton joined them, and Ferrari is on a bigger losing streak when Hamilton joined them. I remember Jensen Buttons going with Brawn and rapidly winning the WDC. The problems with F1 are with its management.
But Jenson Button DIDN'T GO TO BRAWN, he was already in the team previously called Honda when they decided to stop F1. Button was out of a job, until Honda CTO Brawn decided to take over, with generous finances from Honda, and engines from Mercedes, with the proviso that he would pass on the team to the Germans at the end of the season. The McLaren-Mercedes divorce was in full swing and Mercedes was looking at an exit door from the association. Honda pulling out was an excellent opportunity. Brawn was also lucky that the double diffuser was endorsed by the FIA, amid the protestations of other teams!
The Caddy team is going to be a Ferrari customer for 3 years. That means they will be running at the back of the field -- Ferrari customer cars are always noncompetitive. There's no point in paying top driver prices when the car cannot deliver. The top drivers in 2029 will be different than next year's crop.
+1 - good post. Cadillac just needs to get started and sorted. Be ready to implement with their PU and move forward.
Per The Race.com: Formula 1 Why GM pushing back its F1 engine entry is significant Apr 23, 2025 /by Jon Noble Cadillac has officially rolled back its entry to become a Formula 1 engine supplier until 2029, which opens the door for it to enter at the same time the series could switch to a simpler V8 or V10 alternative. The American manufacturer had originally registered to become an F1 engine manufacturer from 2028. In the meantime, its new F1 team would run with customer Ferrari engines. But following suggestions over the past few months that Cadillac may not stick to that timeline, on Wednesday it was announced by the FIA that parent company General Motors has now been officially approved to join F1 from 2029. The timing of that date is interesting because that is the year that the FIA is eyeing as a point when F1 could move away from turbo hybrid engines and towards a cheaper and simpler power unit - like a V8/V10 that runs on fully sustainable fuel. The idea for the 2029 engine proposal is for the power split between the ICE and battery to shift from the 50/50 on the table for next year to a 90/10 balance. A simpler kinetic energy recovery system and smaller batteries will be much more cost-efficient, will not leave cars in economy drives like they may be next year, and will also have an impact in reducing car weight - which remains a hot topic in F1. The Race understands that early estimates put the future engine as being 60-65% cheaper than the turbo hybrids coming for next year, as well as being around 80kg lighter. Cadillac was one of the manufacturers that joined the recent V10 engine summit in Bahrain, where FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem invited senior manufacturer representatives to discuss the long-term vision for F1. While a move to V10s was resisted in the short term, as it was agreed that efforts should be made to ensure the 2026 regulations are a success, the prospect of a change coming for 2029 remains on the table - especially if the new rules hit trouble. With it agreed that nothing should change before 2028, an entry for Cadillac that season would not have made sense if there was a prospect that that would be the final year of turbo hybrids. That would have forced it to spend many millions of dollars on developing a new hybrid engine, only for it to risk it being ditched after one year. Instead, the 2029 timeline should now give it a bit of breathing space to see in which direction the rules head before it needs to commit fully.
It's possible(highly stress) Cadillac looks to sign "Checo" Perez with the F1 team. Good haul of sponsorship and merch sales IF true.
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/new-cadillac-f1-team-faces-battle-to-be-fully-ready-for-2026/ New Cadillac F1 team faces battle to be fully ready for 2026 May 2, 2025 by Adam Cooper Cadillac Formula 1 boss Dan Towriss admits the team faces a serious challenge to be fully prepared for its arrival on the grid in 2026F1 formally confirmed in March that Cadillac will join the grid in 2026, initially using customer Ferrari power units, after a drawn-out process of rejection and then finally acceptance from F1's commercial body. Having finally landed that entry, Cadillac now has to prepare a car to run at F1's first official test under the new regulations at the end of January. Speaking to The Race at a special Miami Grand Prix business leaders forum hosted jointly by The Race and American news outlet Axios, TWG Motorsport CEO Towriss explained the huge scale of the challenge his team faces to be ready in time. “It certainly was a relief, or a momentary relief, and then you suddenly realise that the countdown has begun to be on the grid,” said Towriss, who conceded a "lack of track time" will also hurt the team before it makes its debut. “In the shop, there's a there's a clock coming down. So everybody knows every day that time is not on our side. And so the intensity continues to pick up from that standpoint. "We had a wind-tunnel model, but it didn't have the Pirelli tyres, it had a modelled version of them. “And so just some of those little differences, and not being able to correlate that to the track, and just the data that that a new team wouldn't have relative to an existing team. All those are going to be challenges which we think we can overcome, but certainly we're up against that." Another problem for Cadillac as it fills positions in the team is that the chosen candidates often face gardening leaves with the previous employers, and cannot join immediately. “The good news we've been hiring for a number of years,” said Towriss. “And so we've been able to bring on some tremendous talent in F1, with a lot of experience from that standpoint, into the team, and we work through those gardening leaves. “It continues to be a challenge as new people come on from that standpoint, for sure, but we're happy with the team that we have, and we have the arrangements in place to give us the flexibility we need to build out the team.” The team it currently building its new US manufacturing base in Fishers, Indiana, but it won’t be completed until 2026. Thus for the first car that work will be done elsewhere. “From a commercial standpoint we expect Fishers to be open in late Q1 of next year, and then it'll continue,” said Towriss. “Some of the manufacturing capabilities will continue to come online. And we'll very carefully bring things in house once we're confident that we're ready to take those over.”
No kidding !!! The 2026 season starts in 10 months time !! At this point, they are still tight-lipped about how far down the line they are in the chassis design, and who does it. Is their technical team complete, or are they still poaching (probably) from other teams ?
