Cadillac reveals real target for its first F1 race

Cadillac Formula 1 team principal Graeme Lowdon has shared what he will view as a successful season opener for the American outfit as it joins the grid as the 11th team.

The team is joining the championship at a time when a new wave of regulations is being introduced, meaning no team has any indication at this stage about where they will place among their rivals.

"It's difficult. Success in terms of the Melbourne race - nobody knows that, nobody knows where anybody's going to finish," Lowdon explained when asked about the season-opening Australian Grand Prix during the Autosport Business Exchange London.

"If you ask any team principal at the minute where they think they'll be competitively, if they give you a relative answer, then they're just making it up. Nobody knows, which is why the fans tune in.

"We look at the things that we can control ourselves. And obviously, we want to execute well as a team, but nobody really sees that externally. One of the things that we've often said is the first target for us is to earn the respect of the other teams. We respect them, rightly so. This is a world championship. So that's the first target for us.

Sergio Perez, Cadillac

Photo by: Cadillac Communications

"But then we want to compete with them, but also we want to contribute. Talking to Jim [DeLorenzo, global head of sports at Apple] earlier, it's so exciting what Apple are doing and the various plans that they have. I'm passionate about motorsport, but I still think that we've got a massive opportunity to take this sport to more and more fans, and we want to contribute to that as well.

"So a key thing for us is we don't want fans to follow what we're doing. We want them to join us."

Cadillac will unveil its 2026 F1 livery in a TV advert during the Super Bowl on 8 February before pre-season testing the following week. The Australian Grand Prix will take place on 6-8 March.