Cadillac F1 team: Dan Towriss says that the new entrance “Building a ship while sailing” to prepare for the 2026 season | F1 News

CEO of Cadillac, Dan Towriss, admitted that the new entrants of Formula 1 “build a ship while navigating it” but remains confident that the team will be ready for the start of the 2026 season.

After the formal approval in March of Cadillac’s candidacy to become the 11th Grille team next year, operations accelerated in attempts to guarantee that the new team can be immediately competitive.

Towriss, who heads the project alongside the director of the Graeme Lowdon team, was present at the Italian Grand Prix, where he gave an update on their progress.

“We are roughly on time,” said Towriss Sky Sports F1. “We have good and bad weeks because it is not this linear progress.”

“We feel rather well in the progress that has been made so much.”

The race to be ready for 2026 is perhaps still complicated by the fact that the team is divided on three bases, or four locations if you include the blower it uses in Cologne.

The team has two facilities in the United States, as well as a British base in Silverstone, where Towriss confirmed that the chassis was designed.

He said: “We have a car in the blower, the model on a scale of 60%, for some time. We have been [using the wind tunnel] In Cologne and the team worked hard. “”

“Even in the past two weeks, we have embarked 50 people on the team. We are building a ship while we sail it.

“From real estate to the construction of the company, by bringing together all the resources, we put things on shipping containers in a few weeks to present ourselves in time for the race.

“All these pieces come together when we speak.”

“The right drivers at the right time”

Cadillac carried out two key signatures at the end of August while the veterans pilots Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas joined multi -year offers, adding a huge experience to the team.

Perez and Bottas appreciated long spells at the sharp end of the grid with Red Bull and Mercedes, respectively, and both went fresh after missing seats in 2025.

Towriss said: “The [drivers’] Pedigree, they know what to expect in the car, they have already done so, they succeed a lot in its own right. These are the right pilots at the right time.

“We have done the analysis and the experience is essential. We took our time to decide and at the end of the analysis, the experience was the key to us.”

Towriss said that he was particularly impressed by Perez during the interview process, admitting the impression that the Mexican left dispelled the thoughts of signing a younger driver.

“Checo’s experiences have really passed. He nailed the meeting and we remained really excited by his candidacy,” said Towriss.

“Maybe before this meeting, we may have envisaged a young driver, but Checo was fantastic and the experience really started to separate from those who have not yet been in place.”

Although the team did not respond to a large expectation of selecting at least one American driver, Towriss insists that culturally, Cadillac will represent the United States.

“From a cultural point of view, this will be the case, but it is a world sport and we will be a world team,” he added.

“There are a lot of different accents in the team! But it will certainly have this American feeling and will affect the way we think of partnerships, marketing, narration, culture.”

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