Lowden said that it made sense to have the Silverstone base to service the cars between European races in the summer, when F1 is not set up for long-haul flights back and forth to America. He also said that it enabled the team to tap into existing F1 talent, which is concentrated in the area.
The team numbers around 300 people, “a similar size to Haas”, and has signed former Renault chief technical officer Pat Symonds, who also had a key role in drawing up F1’s new 2026 regulations, as well as Nick Chester, technical director at Renault between 2013 and 2020.
So far, however, there’s been little movement on the driver front, with Cadillac unable to start firm discussions until its entry was formally approved on March 7.
“The obvious question is whether we’ll have American drivers,” said Lowdon. “I see no reason why an American driver can’t be selected on merit. It’s certainly something that I think that fans would like to see.”
Experience would be valued, added Lowdon, but would not be the only factor: “There’s just a whole bunch of things that go into the decision making. So it’s ability, capability, experience, you know, but also looking towards the future as well. We are going to be quite busy talking to a few people. My phone has certainly been busy, that’s for sure.”
Mercedes reserve Valtteri Bottas would offer plenty of experience
Grand Prix Photo
Asked whether he would be interested in speaking to Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez or Colton Herta, he replied: “There are easily half a dozen, if not more, candidates out there who offer extremely good credentials to be in Formula 1.
“Colton doesn’t have the required number of superlicence points. If that were to remain the case, then that, you know that that’s clearly an impediment for him.
“Does his lack of being at the threshold for the superlicence affect his ability to drive a race car? No. He’s an incredibly talented driver. It’s not shock news that we would be looking to consider Colton alongside a whole bunch of other drivers as well.”
Lowdon was also asked about Zhou Guanyu, who he has been managing, and said that this year’s Ferrari reserve driver had done an “exceptional job” driving for Sauber over the last three years. Zhou was among the “really good drivers out there,” he added.
Future drivers could come from an embryonic academy programme, which may be focused on US drivers or be a global project.
How Cadillac deal was approved
Lowdon headed the Virgin and Marussia F1 teams in the mid-2010s so is no stranger to an uphill struggle in F1, but he missed most of the tumultuous process to get Cadillac to this stage. Andretti Global was one of several teams who responded to a call from racing’s governing body the FIA, to register their interest in joining the grid.
In addition to proving that they were up to the task, teams also had to commit to paying a $200m (£155m) fee to join the grid.
New Cadillac F1 HQ in Fishers, Indiana is described as “state-of-the-art”
TWG
Andretti’s was the only bid accepted but it then hit the rocks at the next stage which required approval from F1 promoter Formula One Management (FOM), amid opposition from existing teams who didn’t want an 11th team to dilute the prize money pot for what was seen as a bargain buy-in price.
The bid stalled for almost a year until a larger fee, thought to be in the region of $450m (£348m) was agreed in November, followed by formal approval this month.
However, in a show of confidence that the logjam would be broken, work still continued “at pace” on the F1 project last year. Without an existing car to race, the team has already carried out crash testing and is due to complete its first chassis within weeks.
