Lowdon: We'll be introducing car testing as well this year

Lowdon's statement comes after Cadillac announced on Tuesday that Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas will spearhead the team's first-ever campaign in the top flight in 2026 in a car that will be powered by Ferrari.

And while Cadillac's first single-seater is still in the design and build process, the team are keen to do some actual track running under what is known as the Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) program to make sure they are prepared as best as possible for 2026.

Speaking to the media after announcing Perez and Bottas, Lowdon said: “We'll be introducing car testing as well this year.

“Obviously, we have to work with others to be able to do that, but that's perfectly allowable under the regulations. We just have a plan to steadily build up so that when we get to Melbourne, we hit the ground running.

“The drivers themselves play such an important part in it. The one thing I can tell you, just spending time with them—again, I don't want to put words in their mouths, but there's a huge amount of enthusiasm to get going," he added.

With Ferrari being the power unit supplier for Cadillac next year, it would make sense that they would also provide the car for the TPC runs of their future clients.

But Cadillac haven't been standing still, as they have been running race simulations for some time now; Lowdon said: “We don't have a TPC car or a current car that we can operate, but we are already simulating race events.

“The next one that we're doing is Monza and we simulate it as if it is a complete race weekend from start to finish with full integration of everybody in the team from Thursday all the way through to Sunday.

“We've got a very clear plan in our build-up to Melbourne next year and it doesn't involve just simulating races, which is really important.

“The last one we simulated, we probably had 50 or 60 engineering people fully involved over the whole weekend, both in the UK and the US, all getting used to working with each other," Lowdon revealed.

But a TPC requires drivers, and while Bottas needs some time to be released from his reserve contract with Mercedes, Perez has been out of Red Bull Racing for some time now and can start working with Cadillac.

After signing his Cadillac contract, the Mexican said: “I'm definitely planning a factory visit very soon. We are already in touch with the things that I want to put some input into. That time is just now.

“I will definitely be in contact with the team very regularly and visiting them. I'm also looking forward to see if we can do some driving as well this year, before the end of the year.

"Just to get myself up to speed again, because I want to be as ready as possible for when the winter testing starts," Perez concluded.

(Quotes from Motorsport.com)