Cadillac plans to begin track testing before next year despite not being able to run a 2026 specification car until then.
Team principal Graeme Lowden said they will find a way to begin testing in order to give their team members live practice of operating a racing car.
“We do intend to go testing with some form of single-seat race car later this year because we want the mechanics to be working,” he told Sky. “We’ve seen first-hand just what can happen in a live race environment and everyone has to be right on their A-game.
“We’ll be pounding around the circuit somewhere with something at some stage, just getting the engineers working well and getting the drivers integrated.”
F1’s rules on testing have been tightened since the days when new entries to the championship could conduct unlimited running before making their debut. When Toyota entered F1 in 2002 it spent the previous year running a development chassis at a range of grand prix venues around the world.
The FIA originally approved Cadillac’s entry into F1 in October 2023 – when the project operated under the Andretti brand – but it had to wait until March this year for it to be finally rubber-stamped by Formula One Management. However the team began work on its car development much sooner.
“We’ve had drivers in the simulator now for probably the thick end of a year simulating the car so that side of it’s going really well,” said Lowden. “The aero programme’s very well advanced so the bit that we’re missing is what you see on the track now but we’re getting there.”
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The team has already completed a chassis to 2026 specifications which it will use to further its development programme for next year.
“We had the first 2026 chassis delivered into our factory just a couple of weeks ago,” said Lowden. “So that’s a prototype chassis that’s fully machined, it has a roll hoop on, it looks like the big part of a Formula 1 car.
“We’ll use that chassis to prove the various tests. There’s a huge amount of tests, it’s a new regulations set for ’26 so the tests are even more onerous.
“I think what you’ve witnessed already in the six races in the ’25 season is it’s a complicated game and there’s a lot of things happening all at once. A lot of things can go wrong, can change, so pulling a team together is what I would call a proper job.”
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