Cadillac F1 drivers: New 2026 team’s talks ongoing with potential signings amid Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas links | F1 News
The new Cadillac F1 team “advances the discussions” with a “number of drivers” while they assess the programming of their first 2026 season, explains Graeme Lowdon, director of the team.
Cadillac joins the grid as a 11th team next season, with the project launched in partnership with the American automotive giant General Motors and TWG Global, which also have interests for sports entities such as Chelsea and the Los Angeles Lakers.
The addition of two new seats on the F1 grid next year A, according to Lowdon, has led Cadillac to be contacted by “a long list of very good very good drivers” since their entry was confirmed in March.
After losing their respective places on the grid at the end of last season, several winners of the Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas race are among the main contenders, while the former Sauber Zhou Guanyu pilot and Aston Martin Reserve Felipe Drugovich were also linked to a seat.
In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports News Since their British base in Silverstone before the British Grand Prix of this weekend while the continuous countdown of their inaugural race next March, Lowdon said: “The right thing is that we know a lot of pilots that are there.
“The youngest who showed Formula 2 and also the most established drivers who have a lot of Formula 1 experience. We are talking to these people all the time and we are also trying to spend time in the paddock.
Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez are two of the main contenders for Cadillac seats
“The main objective so far has been to build the car. I think that if we reach Melbourne and there was no car for a driver to drive, then no one would thank us at all.
“But that said, we are moving on discussions with a number of drivers.
“We will not announce anything to Silverstone as such. But, I would say, look at this space.”
Does the Cadillac de Bottas post make sense?
Bottas, who currently holds a third driver’s role at Mercedes after losing his SAUBER RACE headquarters at the end of last season, advanced social networks last week when he published a video of himself next to a Cadillac road car and asked the question: “Love us this seat?”
But asked if there was a wider meaning, Lowdon said: “I saw this post – Well, it shows that he bought a Cadillac!
“But in terms of selection of pilots, there is a real mixture of skills and we are very lucky per minute. We are not synchronized with the other teams at the moment, we have a little time and we can spend this time ensuring that when we announce the range of drivers, it will be the right one.
“We hope that fans will also be excited by that, and hope, excited by the fact that there is a new team on the grid they can follow.”
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In March, F1 and FIA confirmed that Cadillac was ready to join the F1 grid from 2026
“ No new team has the right to be elsewhere than the back ” – Lowdon to relaunch the challenge
On the countdown of their first race weekend in Melbourne from March 6 to 8, Lowdon said: “This is a number that is on the wall of each office we have. We have a countdown, which shows the time by free training in Melbourne, so everyone is very conscious of chronology.
“We are on the target.
“We have been in the wind tunnel with a car ’26 for some time.”
And Lowdon, which previously held a management role in F1 in the old Manor / Marussia team in 2010-2015, said the challenge of competition at the higher level of Motorsport: “It’s super difficult. It’s extremely competitive, it’s really, really.
“There is a change of regulation, so we must not yet see how other teams will adapt to this, but no new team that arrives in Formula 1 has the right, in reality, to be elsewhere than from the back of the grid. So, obviously, our challenge is to try to move forward and we have all the right ingredients.
“Although we are very realistic about the task in hand … I think it is important to have the ambition and that you can see from TWG and Cadillac, it is a team that has a vision and an ambition to move forward. But we know how difficult it is.”
The next stage of the Formula 1 season in 2025 is the big, the British Grand Prix in Silverstone – Live on Sky Sports F1 and Sky Showcase with coverage from Thursday to Sunday at 3 p.m. Stream Sky Sports with now – no contract, cancel at any time.
