cadillac f1 – The Thrill of Driving

When I publish this, we’re one week out from the first Grand Prix of the F1 season 2026 down in Melbourne. And on 27 February, Netflix very timely released the latest season of “Drive to Survive”, giving everyone (or at least most of us) enough time to go through the intricacies from last season before the 2026 engines start revving down under. Melbourne usually attracts around half a million spectators during the F1 weekend, making it one of, if not the best attended F1 event during the year.

I will unfortunately not be one of that half million people, but the question is really what the lucky ones will get to see this year. Because the 2026 season promises to be very different indeed. To most, the question seems to be not whether it will be better or worse, but rather how much worse it will be. The changes to the cars are so big that experience could count for less than in many years, potentially leading to completely new podiums. Time will tell but for now, let’s dive in for a closer look at what it’s all about.

Before looking closer at the new cars, 2026 will see a new team with two old drivers (in all senses of the word), a rebranded team (Kick Sauber becoming Audi) but just one rookie, in stark contrast to the six we had last season. His name is Arvid Lindblad which sounds very Swedish to the Swedes among us. Sadly for us, Arvid is a British driver with a Swedish father and an Indian mother, who’s come up through the Red Bull Academy to take the second seat at Red Bull’s junior team Racing Bulls, next to Liam Lawson.

*Arvid may discover that being a rookie in 2026 is better than in many years!*

This comes about as Isack Hadjar in his second F1 season moves to Red Bull, replacing Yuki Tsunoda and becoming Max Verstappen’s seventh team mate during his tenure at the team. The move is logical in the sense that Hadjar drove really well in his first season and managed to be in the points in 10 races, making one podium in the Dutch GP as third. As for Tsunoda, he stays with the team but in the role of test driver. No, that’s not a promotion, it’s the price to pay for being the 6th driver who didn’t succeed as nr. 2 at Red Bull. Let’s hope nr. 7 does better.

The only other driver move in 2026 is Sergio “Checo” Perez and Valtteri Bottas returning to F1 to drive for the new team on the grid this year – Cadillac. The team is the first to join the F1 circus since Haas did so 10 years ago, and they will also be the last unless another team pulls out. Team principal Graeme Lowdon has built the Cadillac team from the ground up, choosing no less than 500 people out of 143.000 applicants! That says something about how big F1 has become on the other side of the Atlantic.

The Cadillac cars will for now be powered by Ferrari engines. GM is however working on their proper engine, currently expected to be introduced in 2029. That means that next to the two drivers, Cadillac at least has a reputable engine up its sleeve. That’s it however for the good news, since most pundits agree that it will take at least a few years for the team to establish itself in F1. Any points scored in the coming season would thus be a rather big surprise.

*At least no team beats Cadillac in driver experience!*

Moving on to the cars, there is a long list of differences compared to the last years that risk turning the season pretty much on its head. The first thing, visible to the eye, is that the cars are smaller. Their minimum weight has been reduced by 30 kgs, as has their maximum width and length. It’s also easy to spot that tires are thinner both in the front and back. What you won’t see as easily is an important reduction in down force of around 30% compared to the 2025 car. If you’re driving at 300 km/h, that makes a pretty big difference!

All of the above is supposed to make the cars nimbler, reversing the trend towards more bulky cars seen in the last years. Because along with the reduced down force comes an even more important reduction in drag, all contributing. to the cars “dancing through corners” in official F1 language. I guess we’ll see about that, but a condition for any kind of dance will be the power unit, and it’s here that changes are the biggest.

The new cars aim for a 50/50 split between combustion and electric engines, meaning the former sees a reduction of power to 400 kW (about 536 hp), the latter a boost of nearly 300% to 350 kW (about 470 hp). Another big change is the elimination of DRS, with cars instead having a Z-mode for cornering with increased downforce, and a low-drag X-mode configuration for increased straight line speed. This is referred to as active aerodynamics, and the X-mode also has a manual override function, allowing the driver to use more power for overtaking when a car is at or closer than one second ahead.

*The new power train, here in an Alpine, is nothing for the handyman in the back yard…*

If you think that sounds complicated and perhaps slightly over the top, you’re not alone. Of course teams would most probably have complained whatever changes had been introduced, but given the changes more or less alter what F1 has been about so far, the critique from both teams and drivers is understandable. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that the changes improve what we all tune in to see every two weeks: great racing.

Some of the biggest concerns raised include the complexity of the power train and hereby reliability issues. Another point is the start procedure, where drivers will have a very small window to correctly rev the engine, creating enough turbo pressure whilst also taking into account the somewhat delayed electric power. The two active aerodynamic modes will mean more sliding on straights whilst fast corners can be taken more easily, fundamentally changing the required driving style. Finally, it’s unclear whether overtaking will be possible at all.

To understand this last point, drivers will need to manage their electrical power carefully as batteries will otherwise deplete half way down the straight, meaning no extra power available for overtaking. They can do this in different ways: by lifting, coasting, or taking corners in lower gears, meaning lower speeds. Quite obviously, none of this comes naturally to an F1 driver, and the skills that traditionally separated the good from the great, such as not lifting when going through Raidillon in Spa, will be far less in demand.

*Raidillon used to separate the wheat from the chaff. Not anymore…*

Quite obviously, drivers aren’t thrilled about all this. Max Verstappen has made some comments in the direction of the fun of driving being gone, and him not seeing the point of going on if that’s the case. Charles Leclerc sees potential big issues with overtaking, and many others seem more confused than anything else. Unfortunately, the level of confusion wasn’t really reduced during pre-season testing, rather the opposite.

Teams have had two three-day testing sessions in Barcelona and Bahrain pre-season. All teams except for Williams, who weren’t ready for Barcelona, participated in both. Aston Martin had massive issues during both sessions and only managed to complete 1/3 of the laps of test-leading Mercedes. Their main issue was, unsurprisingly, reliability. Among the top teams, all of them completed more than 1000 laps. However, time differences between them and the mid field are far larger than they used to be, up to several seconds per lap. It will be very interesting to see how that turns out racing-wise.

At this stage, I’d like to keep an open mind and hope all of this turns out better than it sounds on paper and we all expect. In a way, it will be interesting to see if the experienced drivers or the younger guys manage to adapt quickest to the new driving style. Hopefully we’ll get some real racing with races being decided by great driving and not power depletion. And hopefully, drivers will all find it fun enough to be worth their while. If not, the “new” F1 risks becoming one of the more painful sacrifices on the altar of world’s electrification!

it was in late June that I published the latest F1 update, which was also the half of the season one. Rest assured that it’s not a lack of other stuff to write about which motivates another one so soon thereafter, but there’s been some inter-season action this summer that needs to be commented on. So in terms of race updates, I’ll come back to those yet another time before the season ends, in a few races from now. Today, we’ll look at the big news from behind the F1 scene.

“Thank you for everything, Christian, and you will forever remain an important part of our team history.”. Those were some of the words Red Bull’s MD Oliver Mintzlaff expressed when he earlier this summer announced that after 20 years, the Red Bull team had rather abruptly decided to sack team principal Christian Horner. By the looks of it, no one was more surprised than Christian himself, which is perhaps an indication that everything was actually not hunky dory at Milton Keynes, Red Bull’s HQ. When the boss doesn’t realize what’s going on, it’s usually not a good sign.

*There have definitely been better days, if you’re Christian Horner…*

Horner’s story with Red Bull is of course both a unique and a uniquely successful one. After some limited success as a driver in F2 and F3 during the 90’s, Christian admitted to himself that he didn’t have the balls for F1, and instead set off on a quest to build his own team in F3000, at the time the junior class acting as a stepping stone to F1. Doing so he met Red Bull’s grand old man Dr. Helmut Marko the first time, and it was no doubt their prior relationship that made Red Bull and Marko confident enough to choose him as (a 31-year old) untested team principal, when in 2001, they decided to launch their own F1 team. That was a bold move, but boy was it rewarded!

With Red Bull, Christian Horner went on to become the longest serving and one of the most successful team principals in F1 history. Over 20 years and 373 races, the team under his command recorded 113 race victories and six constructors’ titles. In the team’s best season 2022, Red Bull had a race win percentage of over 95%. And as the team’s uncontested first driver, Max Verstappen has won four world titles, the latest in 2024. So why on earth was Horner let go of?

The first cracks started to appear in early 2024, when Horner was accused of inappropriate behavior by a female Red Bull employee. He was later acquitted, but neither Red Bull, nor Helmut Marko, nor Max Verstappen’s influential father Jos appreciated the negative PR, and openly stated so. A bit later the same year, both team manager Jonathan Wheatley and the legendary designer Adrian Newey, who had been instrumental in Red Bull’s success over many years, announced they were leaving. At the same time, not even Verstappen could handle the Red Bull car anymore, and other teams, especially McLaren, were catching up. Race-wise the 2025 season hasn’t been any better, and 2/3 into the season, Red Bull has no practical chance of winning neither the Constructors’, nor the Drivers’ title this year.

*Without Newey, even Horner would admit that Red Bull would never have had the success they did.*

The other way of looking at it is also that with each passing year, the Red Bull car seems to be increasingly developed for Max Verstappen – and only Max Verstappen. It’s almost comical how many second drivers have passed through Red Bull and failed to get anywhere near Verstappen’s results. It started with Ricciardo (who arguably, made one of many bad choices in joining Renault, but he didn’t do so on the back of massive success at Red Bull). Then came Pierre Gasly, followed by Alex Albon, in turn followed by Sergio Perez, Liam Leeson, and now Yuki Tsunoda. That’s six guys in 10 years. Six guys that may not have Max’s talent, but all of which have recorded better results with other teams than with Red Bull’s world champion outfit. If you build a car that is really tailor-made to one driver and that driver doesn’t win anymore, as a team principal in F1 where memory only goes back to last Sunday’s race, you leave yourself exposed.

I think it would be suprising if Christian Horner doesn’t return to F1 in some capacity. During the summer, there’s been plenty of rumours on him joining Ferrari, setting up his own team again, or perhaps becomes the principal of the new team for the 2026 season, which is the other big piece of news from this summer: Cadillac’s F1 entry.

*Two happy 35-year olds, a bit unexpectedly back in action!*

Of course, the news that there will be another team in F1 next year is older than this summer, but it was in August that Cadillac announced its driver line-up for 2026. Contrary to the recent trend among the more established F1 teams, Cadillac goes for experience all the way, with Mexican Sergio “Checo” Perez on one hand, and Finnish Valtteri Bottas on the other. None of them have a seat this season, with Bottas being test driver at Mercedes, and Perez having taken the year out to spend time with his family. They do however have a total of 106 podiums in F1 between them, and the idea is that both now bring their extensive experience to Cadillac to help shorten the time it will take the time to establish itself.

Cadillac will be the 11th team on the grid and is a brand new outfit, in a collaboration between Cadillac, GM and TWG Global, a Chicago-based investment company active in sports, media and entertainment. Former Virgin and Marussia team boss Graeme Lowdon will run it (so no, it won’t be Christian Horner taking up the job). The engine will initially be supplied by Ferrari, but will be replaced by a GM powertrain by 2029, and it’s no secret that it’s the new engine regulations for next year, that we’ll come back to before the 2026 season, that make the entry possible.

*Images so far tell a very black story…*

There’s no doubt that F1 and its boss Stefano Domenicali has thought long and hard about Cadillac’s entry as there isn’t room for any more teams behond this in F1, and any new entrants after this will therefore have to buy an existing team (is that perhaps where we’ll see or friend Christian Horner reappear?). There’s thus little doubt that Cadillac is serious about a long-term commitment. No F1 newcomer can however expect to be close to the podium in its first season(s), so don’t expect too much.

Come to think of it though, that’s not quite true. A young David Coulthard finished fourth in his first race for a brand new team in the 2005 season. The new team he was racing for was called Red Bull, and its principal was a rather unknown 31-year old, called Christian Horner…

Pictures from f1.com and Motorsport

The Thrill of Driving

Tag: cadillac f1

The 2026 F1 (r)evolution!

F1 (extra) pit stop – inter-season action!