Lowdon: We want to be as competitive as we possibly can

Cadillac were given the final approval from Formula One Management and the FIA to become the 11th team in the sport, but the US outfit have already been hard at work developing their first single-seater for 2026, which will be under F1's new engine and chassis regulations.

The team have already set up shop in Silverstone while they are building their headquarters stateside in Fishers, Indianapolis.

The new outfit—backed by General Motors and TWG Motorsports—is also building an F1 power unit facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, next to General Motors’ technical center, which will deliver the team's first power unit by 2028, while Ferrari will power them in their first two seasons in the top flight.

Lowdon shed some light on Cadillac's progress in the aftermath of their official confirmation as the 11th F1 team; he said: "In terms of being ready to race, everything is on schedule.

"We don’t just want to turn up and race; we want to be as competitive as we possibly can be," he claimed. "From that point of view, for sure we would have loved to have had more time and more people because the more of that you have, the more performance you can build in. But we recognized that the process itself requires a huge amount of energy and effort.

"In terms of timeline for production, we’re happy with where that stands. We’ve been using a lot of time up to now doing a lot of testing and validation of individual components, things like testing of noses, squeeze testing of chassis elements, and the like.

"There’s an awful lot of work that has gone on in the background," the Briton revealed. "There’s still a lot of work to do. We’re in a significantly better position now that we’re now a fully-fledged F1 team. We will have access to all the data and information that all the other teams have.

"Now we can really push to come up with the most competitive car that we can. The team is already very sizable; we’re very comfortable about the position we’re in, in terms of being ready to go racing in 2026," he maintained.

Cadillac already have some F1 veteran tech people working for them in the form of former Renault engineer Nick Chester. Pat Symonds—who was also the tech boss at Benetton, Renault, and later Formula 1—is also on board.

Lowdon commented: "F1 is such a unique form of motorsport, so having people onboard [like Symonds and Chester] with the depth of knowledge and experience is great.

"And they are also great people to go racing with. A lot of people at the team have worked with each other before at other teams.

"One thing I’m extremely proud of already is the team spirit within the team. We’ve all gone through this long process together, but during that, it’s allowed us to really build a team that is very much vision-driven and value-based—and it’s allowed us to build and communicate those values among everybody.

"We’re also employing some very bright young people who have never been in F1. Having experienced staff onboard is helpful in being able to bring those young people along.

"It’s really great to have such a breadth of experience," the Cadillac team principal maintained.

But then there is the matter of the drivers, and several names have been linked with the Cadillac project, with former Red Bull Racing driver Sergio Perez being one of them, but there has also been some talk about the team's plans to hire an American driver with the name of Colton Herta making the rounds.

When asked about Cadillac's driver plans, Lowdon said: “There’s some very talented drivers still out there. We hadn’t been able to be in the driver market until the entry was confirmed. Now it has, we can move forward with that.

"In terms of timing, we’re not putting any timeline on driver announcements or anything like that but for sure, there will be in time.

"For sure we’re going to hire drivers based on merit," he responded when asked about having an American driver. "But as such, we see no reason why we won’t have American drivers in time.

"There’s nothing preventing a driver being selected on merit and being American. I think that would be something that a lot of fans would really want to see as well.

"At the end of the day, the Cadillac Formula 1 Team is based in the US. We have an operation in the UK, but it’s headquartered in the US, and it is a US team as well.

"I’m fairly sure that hiring on merit and having a US driver are entirely compatible objectives for the team," Lowdon concluded.