Cadillac team principal was absolutely spot on about 2026 development after Silverstone shakedown

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Cadillac are the latest team to have tested their 2026 Formula 1 car in a shakedown session at Silverstone on Friday.

It came days after Audi tested their 2026 car for the first time in Barcelona and Red Bull and Racing Bulls revealed their liveries. However, unlike their rivals, Cadillac showcased more of their challenger during what was effectively a filming day.

Reserve driver Zhou Guanyu and full-time driver Sergio Perez were present at Silverstone, driving the all-black Cadillac around the circuit. It seemed to go well on the track, but the 11th team’s first test was not without its problems.

Cadillac had trouble ‘starting the engine’ in the garage. It is unclear whether it was an issue with the Ferrari power unit, but regardless, it delayed the running of the shakedown.

There were ‘whispers’, as per The Race, that the session would even go ahead at all. It was said that Cadillac were facing pressure to get to the track on Friday as planned, but they did, and it proves the team are on target.

Graeme Lowdon’s claim that Cadillac are ‘on schedule’ for 2026 is proven right by first shakedown

Naturally, being a new team on the grid, Cadillac are expected to struggle in 2026. But team principal Graeme Lowdon highlighted last month that his team were ‘on schedule’, in an interview with The Race.

While he understands that the 2026 cars will be ‘super complicated’, Lowdon emphasised that Cadillac have ‘prioritised delivery over everything else’ as they have to get to the track in January and develop the car during pre-season testing.

“You’re constantly faced with these trade-offs,” he said. “What we’ve done, which I think is sensible, is prioritised delivery over everything else, because we’re still building our factories and manufacturing facilities and all sorts of other things, and they’ll take years to come fully online.

“Some of the other teams know how far to push their internal production processes to the absolute limit. That wouldn’t be a sensible approach for what we’re doing coming in as a new team.

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“You have to leave some margin, and like everything in Formula 1, as soon as you make any decision, there is a compromise, and there is a cost to it.

“But equally, we’ve got programmes in place to catch up in those areas as well. The good thing about the ’26 season is there’s an awful lot of testing opportunity. Those opportunities can give us a chance to bring new parts even at that stage.”

Lowdon has been proven absolutely right about Cadillac’s progress. The fact that they have made it onto the track at Silverstone shows that they are on schedule and are heading in the right direction ahead of the first official shakedown in Barcelona.

READ MORE: All to know about General Motors’ Cadillac F1 team from engine to drivers

How will Cadillac perform in 2026?

At this stage, it is hard to predict where any team is on the grid in 2026, let alone Cadillac, who come into the sport as an entirely new project.

Before the Silverstone shakedown, Perez had tested a 2023 Ferrari at Imola. The Mexican and teammate Bottas will be relying heavily on their engine supplier in 2026, especially when Cadillac have outsourced almost everything for their car, as Haas did in 2016.

It worked out for their fellow Ferrari customer team, who finished in the midfield in their debut season. Cadillac will want to replicate that and get any problems with the car out of the way now, before the first test in Barcelona.

Mario Andretti has full confidence in Ferrari’s engine ahead of the 2026 season. Whether Cadillac can use it to compete with rivals in the midfield and score points is another question.