Over the first three race weekends of the 2026 Formula 1 season, every competitve session ended the same way: With a Mercedes driver in P1. George Russell took both pole position and the win at the Australian Grand Prix, while Kimi Antonelli did the same at both the Chinese Grand Prix (where Russell took pole — and the win — for the F1 Sprint race) and the Japanese Grand Prix.

After a long layoff, F1 returned to action this week at the Miami Grand Prix, and that break has done McLaren some good. The defending Constructors’ Champions brought a host of upgrades to South Beach, and when the dust settled after Friday’s F1 Sprint qualifying, defending Drivers’ Champion Lando Norris was atop the timing sheets.

The McLaren driver hailed the upgrades — and the ability to feel “grip” again — after the qualifying session.

“This is a perfect result for us and a nice way to reward the team. We have a lot of new upgrades on the car so it’s nice to feel some grip again,” said Norris. “I’ve always loved Miami, both on and off the track, so it’s a good result for us. We know this track has been good to us, and we knew what we were bringing might be a good step and it is. I’ve always felt good around here and although it’s only the beginning of the weekend and there’s a long way to go, but it’s nice to start with pole.”

In McLaren’s media report both Norris (and teammate Oscar Piastri who qualified third) talked about the upgrades.

“I’m happy with that. The car had good potential, which was really nice to see. We still have things to improve, but the new package is a good step, so thank you to the whole team for their efforts. Congratulations to Lando as well – we didn’t luck into today’s result, the potential is there,” said Piastri.

“The Ferraris looked strong throughout the day, so qualifying where we have is a really good effort. Whilst we expect the Mercedes to remain competitive, they haven’t looked as dominant so far, but there’s still a lot of track action to go. We’ll take the learnings from today and see what we can do in the Sprint, before we switch our focus to GP Qualifying.”

”We came into this weekend having put a lot of hard work into these upgrades, but you can never be certain what to expect until the car is on the track. I’m incredibly happy for the whole team because, from the very first lap, it felt like we had taken a step forward. It gave me the confidence I’ve been looking for, allowing me to really push and exploit its potential straight away,” added Norris.

“It’s a great start, and it feels good to be right in the mix, but we’re keeping our feet on the ground. It was incredibly close out there with several teams looking quick, and we know there are still plenty of unknowns, especially when it comes to race pace. We are still learning how to get the most out of this new package, but we’ve started as well as we could have asked for. For now, I’m happy with what we’ve achieved, and we will focus on making further improvements ahead of the Sprint and Grand Prix Qualifying tomorrow.”

According to the team’s Car Presentation Submission to the FIA, McLaren brought seven new components to Miami, including a new rear wing and a new floor.

Neil Houldey, the team’s technical director of applied engineering, referred to this host of upgrades as the team’s “first phase” of their development program.

“We’re pleased with today’s result and performance across the opening day of running in Miami. The car has been great for both drivers, and the first phase of our development upgrades has shown promising signs,” said Houldey.

“To come away with a Pole and third on tomorrow’s Sprint grid, given where we were in the first few races, is a strong step forward. Credit to the team at the factory for this first step, from aerodynamics and design through to manufacturing, and to the crew at the track who finished putting the package together, ready for today’s sessions.”

A pretty impressive start to McLaren’s first phase.

Formula 1 is finally back after an extended absence, with this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.

But it is shaping up to be a rather soggy return to the track.

Weather was the dominant story during Thursday’s media day sessions, as current forecasts call for thunderstorms and heavy rain on Sunday during the main event. That forecast has all the drivers talking about what they might encounter, and even has the sport considering changing the schedule for the weekend.

“It’ll be interesting. I don’t think many of us have driven these cars in the rain before, maybe a couple of people in Barcelona at the shakedown,“ said Oscar Piastri during Thursday’s FIA Press Conference. ”But I think they’re going to be challenging cars to drive in the rain just because of some of the quirks that they have. And obviously the weather, normally if it rains in Miami, it does it properly, so we’ll wait and see. But it’ll be interesting one way or another.“

“I understand that there is a meeting later on with the FIA to double-check the scenario for Sunday because apparently, it’s looking really bad. So, we’ll see if there are any changes on the schedule for the weekend,” added Cadillac’s Sergio Pérez.

The sport’s governing body, the FIA, issued a statement on Thursday.

“We are closely monitoring the weather forecast for this weekend,” an FIA spokesperson said. “Having faced a similar situation last year in Miami with threats of thunderstorms, we have a contingency plan in place and will activate it if needed to minimise disruption to the on-track [program].”

Last year, wet weather on Saturday forced the cancellation of the second F1 Academy race at the Miami Grand Prix, and the F1 Sprint race began in tricky conditions. Charles Leclerc crashed in those conditions ahead of the F1 Sprint race, and did not make the start.

As of Friday morning, forecasts are calling for showers in the morning with heavy thunderstorms on Sunday afternoon, with an 85% chance of rain and up to a half-inch of precipitation during the afternoon:

Complicating matters is the fact that few drivers have operated this year’s machinery in wet conditions, as noted by Piastri. Drivers are still coming to grips with the impact of the new regulations, which were tweaked during the extended break.

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, the current championship leader, is one of the few drivers who has experienced the new cars in wet conditions. He described that experience as “tricky” on Thursday.

“Yeah, I drove the car when we did the shakedown in Silverstone in the wet and definitely it was very tricky,” said Antonelli.

“Although now with the changes, they clipped the power to 250 kilowatts for the wet and no boost, so that’s already a step forward in that regard. And definitely I think it’s going to be tricky because there will be a lot of unknown, and obviously we’re also going to be racing if the wet weather presents. But I think also another big topic is that we will need to increase tire blanket [temperatures] for the wet because I think as they are now, probably they will be a bit too low for the conditions.

“So yeah, it’s going to be interesting to see, tricky, but let’s see. If it’s thunderstorms, like they say, we probably also won’t get under way for quite a bit of time. So, let’s see how that goes,” added Antonelli. “But definitely it’s going to be very interesting because there’s so much unknown in the wet at the moment, especially no one really used the inter tires, so we don’t know how it’s going to feel, how much grip there will be, especially with the new regulation. And I think also one thing with this year’s cars, it’s a bit harder to build temperature with the tyres, so in the wet they might be tricky and that’s why we probably would need to increase tire blanket [temps] in order to make it a bit better and a bit easier on that side. But yeah, let’s see what’s going to happen.”

As Antonelli pointed out, ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, the FIA announced that the new boost mode would not be accessible for drivers in wet conditions, like we may see on Sunday.

Regarding what F1 could do to the schedule, the 2024 São Paulo Grand Prix may be a guide. Ahead of that race, qualifying for the Grand Prix was moved from Saturday to Sunday morning due to severe weather, and the start time of the Grand Prix on Sunday was pushed up by 90 minutes as well.

With these forecasts, we could see something similar in Miami this weekend.

Formula 1 returns to action this week, with the Miami Grand Prix.

And for one team in particular, the trip to South Beach will be an incredible moment.

The F1 grid grew by one team for 2026, with Cadillac joining the sport as the 11th team. Each step along the way has been a new milestone for F1’s newest team, from the first time they fired up their car, to the first race weekend, to the first time both their drivers were able to take the checkered flag, which came at the Chinese Grand Prix.

This week is another new milestone, their first race in front of their home fans.

Ahead of this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, I sat down for an exclusive interview with Cadillac team principal Graeme Lowdon to talk about what it takes to get an F1 team off the ground, their driver lineup, and what it will be like racing in front of their home fans in Miami.

The start to Cadillac’s F1 journey

Our conversation started with the big picture.

How would Lowdon describe the start to Cadillac’s F1 journey?

The Cadillac boss needed just one word to answer that question.

“Historic, I think, if I had to do it in one word,” responded Lowdon.

However, Lowdon then broadened his response.

“It’s really struck me that new teams in Formula One don’t happen very often, and new teams in Formula One with an enormous automotive manufacturer, with such a strong brand as Cadillac, is even more rare,” continued Lowdon. “And actually not just Cadillac, but TWG Motorsport and everything that they bring from their knowledge, in particular, of U.S. sports, with ownership positions in the [Los Angeles] Lakers and the [Los Angeles] Dodgers.

“What we’re experiencing is really unique, and I don’t think it puts too much weight on it to say it’s historic, and enormously proud for me to be able to wear the badge, and get a front row seat of seeing it all come to life.”

I then wanted to know just how difficult it was to get an entire F1 team off the ground. This was a partnership that was first launched back in January of 2023, and here we are in April of 2026, talking about the team’s first few races on the grid ahead of their first home race in Miami.

Just how difficult has this process been?

”Hugely tough,” said Lowdon with a laugh. “I have aged Mark beyond, almost beyond recognition. As the old adage goes, if I had a pet dog, it would have bitten us by now because it wouldn’t have recognized us.

“It’s a massive undertaking.”

Lowdon then pulled back the curtain a bit, outlining how it was tough for the team to truly get up to speed until their entry was fully confirmed by F1. But the backing of the team’s ownership group helped Cadillac get up to speed, as it were.

Even if that too was a massive leap of faith.

“I have to say that the ownership group from the very start, I’ve been involved in the project for a long, long time, way ahead of the entry being granted, but the ownership of TWG and GM went about it in absolutely the right way.

“They showed their confidence because we started building the team long before the entry was confirmed, and that takes a degree of risk calculation. You’re not a Formula One team until you’ve actually got an entry, and we didn’t get our entry until March 2025. So almost a year to the day to the first Grand Prix.”

Lowdon then took me through the details of what that mean for the new operation.

”There’s a whole pile of things that people don’t realize that you can’t have access to until you are actually a Formula One team. You don’t get access to all of the regulations, you can’t see things like the shared components that other teams have access to,“ continued Lowdon.

“You don’t get the CFD [computational fluid dynamics] models, you don’t even get the wind tunnel tires, and also, when you’re trying to recruit talent, you can’t even tell anyone you’re a Formula One team, because until you get the entry, you’re not.

“So, we spent a long time recruiting, really top, top talent, but we were advertising as a top-tier motor sport team, and it was only from March ‘25 that we could actually say ‘here we are, it’s Cadillac Formula One team.’

“And so for all we started early and we had the benefit of some stable regulations and some, you know, some incredible investors with that, you know, with that bold ambition and that foresight, it’s still difficult.”

However, the difficulties did not end there.

Because once you’re on the grid, you’re on the grid, going up against the best teams in the world in the “most difficult and competitive game in the world,” added Lowdon.

“And then of course once you are established, you’re in the most difficult and competitive game in the world, in my view, up against incredibly experienced, and extremely good teams. These are the best teams in the world, and there’s nowhere to hide as well. I should add, you’re doing all this in front of a few 100 million people, carrying a very valuable brand,” said Lowdon.

“As we would say on this side of the Atlantic, it was definitely a proper job and hopefully we’ve begun the journey in a good way.”

As if that was not enough, Cadillac’s arrival on the grid came at another historic moment in F1.

The biggest set of regulation changes in the sport’s history.

Not only did F1 make regulation changes on the chassis side, but also on the power unit side, the first time the sport incorporated changes to both elements in a single season. While those new regulations are still a heated point of discussion, I asked Lowdon if arriving during such a sea change made it easier, or harder, on F1’s newest team.

”There are positives and negatives,” started Lowdon in rather diplomatic fashion.

“The advantage if the regulation set had been stable is we would be able to predict where we would hit the ground running very accurately, because the longer the regulation set is stable, the more the teams tend to coalesce around a single point. You could see that if you look at the qualifying spread, for example, or the race pace spread,” Lowdon described. “It was really tight, and people had worked all the different angles that you can work and exploit things, and everyone copies each other, in terms of concepts and the like, so we would have known exactly what we were aiming for.

“The flip side of that is, you’re kind of coming in when everyone else has perfected everything, and that’s not easy, and it’s really difficult to land where you wanna land, even though you know where that is.

“With the massive reg change, it’s much easier to land, but you don’t know where you’re gonna land, because you don’t know where everyone else is gonna be. And this regulation change was massive, as you rightly say, in particular on the power unit side.”

Still, even with that added difficulty, Lowdon found some positives from the team’s first three races.

“I think it’s really positive for us that we’ve only done three Grand Prix, but we’ve spent quite a bit of it actually racing, you know, at least one, if not two other teams, and so that’s got to be a positive thing for us.”

Cadillac’s current driver lineup

The focus then turned to Cadillac’s driver lineup.

As anyone who has spent time around F1 knows, driver market speculation is a huge deal in the sport. With just 20 seats available, competition for those spots is tight, and the news that a new team was joining the grid not only offered two more seats, but more room for speculation.

Ultimately, Cadillac went with two very experienced drivers, selecting Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez for those spots. Both came with race-winning experience, and championship experience, Bottas having helped Mercedes to several Constructors’ Championships while Pérez was part of a Red Bull team that won two titles as well. And both drivers were alongside teammates who won Drivers’ Championships, Bottas with Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes while Pérez was alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull.

Lowdon pointed to that experience when I asked about those two drivers, but also pointed to their experience having driven for multiple teams along their F1 journeys.

“I think essentially, as you say, it was no surprise when the announcement came out that we’d gone for drivers that weren’t just experienced on the track, but were experienced in multiple teams,” began Lowdon. “I think it was seven or eight teams between the two of them, and championship-winning teams, as well. Red Bull. Mercedes. So what we’re getting with that driver lineup was not just two very fast drivers who know how to drive the car, and also they know how to give instant technical feedback, which is really important, we’re developing this product together, but they also knew how to gel the mechanics together. The engineers. And that comes from experience of not just one team, but multiple teams, and that’s really, really important, I think.

“And then also, it is important to surround yourself with the best people that you can possibly find, and then you encourage them to push and to challenge you and we look for that in a driver as well.”

From where Lowdon sits, both Pérez and Bottas still have the “fire in the belly” despite that experience.

“They’ve got fire still. There’s fire in the belly and they’re enthusiastic, which again, is very important. And they wanna push and they wanna develop, but they don’t wanna push too hard, because again, we’re a very young team and if we get that calculation out of sync, then it can cause more problems than you would want. So, with Valtteri and Checo, right from the first shakedown, I was just super happy with their feedback, how they’ve encouraged everyone in the team, how they’ve pushed for better performance, but pushed at the right level and I couldn’t talk more highly of them Mark,” added Lowdon.

Those two are not the only experienced hands Cadillac added as drivers. The team selected Zhou Guanyu as its reserve driver, someone Lowdon knows well. The Cadillac boss formerly served as the driver’s agent, until Lowdon moved into this role.

The Cadillac team principal outlined how his experience was also “important” for the new team, but also declared he would not hesitate for a second before putting him in one of the cars.

“Yeah, really important. He’s our reserve driver. I would have no qualms putting him in a race car because I’ve seen how fast he can be,” said Lowdon. “He was Valtteri’s teammate at Sauber, so we have direct comparison there. He’s a driver who should be on the grid, in any case, in my view. I think he brings a lot to Formula One, and he’s a very, very rapid, race car driver.”

The one difference between the three drivers, was that Zhou did not have the experience of driving for multiple teams.

“For our selection, the one thing he didn’t have was that multiple team angle that I spoke of before. He’s very experienced in Formula One, especially as a reserve. There aren’t many reserve drivers who’ve done three years of racing at their absolute sharpest in Formula One,” added Lowdon. “But he hadn’t had that experience of working at lots and lots of different teams, which gives the other two that edge in terms of what we need in building the team and in building the team we’re making the car go faster and, and so on and so forth.

“He plays an active part in all the engineering meetings, and he has a contribution to say, and he has that very recent experience, as well, and also it’s a pleasure to have him in the team, as well, he’s a really nice guy.

“In fact, you can be nice and fast, and all three of our drivers, I think fit that bill.”

There is a fourth driver to consider, one that fans here in the United States know well.

Colton Herta, the team’s test and development driver.

Herta carved a name for himself in IndyCar, and has been linked with a move to F1 for years. The first time he came close to such a move was during 2021, when he was tapped for a move to F1 with Alfa Romeo. But those negotiations between Sauber and Andretti Autosport failed to reach a conclusion.

McLaren then signed him as a reserve for 2022, until the Red Bull family came calling, with an interest in signing him to potentially drive for the junior team (then Alpha Tauri, now Visa Cash App Racing Bulls). But with Herta shy of the requisite points on his FIA Super License — and the FIA unwilling to grant an exemption — that bid also fell short.

But now his F1 journey has been given new life, as he has signed on with Cadillac as a test driver while also competing in F2 for Hitech, with Cadillac’s backing. Ahead of our discussion, the team confirmed that Herta would be participating in four different Free Practice 1 (FP1) sessions with Cadillac during the F1 season, and he could secure the points he needs for the FIA Super License this year through his finish in F2 alone, or combined with those four FP1 sessions. Drivers can secure a point for an FP1 session provided they complete at least 100 kilometers during the practice session.

I asked Lowdon what the team is hoping to see from Herta both in F2, and in those four practice sessions.

“He’ll do four FP1 sessions for the team, and it’s a great opportunity for him to get to grips with some Formula One machinery, get used to working with the engineers,” started Lowdon. “It is a huge step, Formula One, in terms of the engineering structure.

“You go from pretty much having one race engineer and performance engineer in F2 to literally F1 teams of over 1000 people. So you get that experience, so there we just want to see him gain that experience and develop and play his part as well. The FP1s are part of the competition of Formula One as well, so we will look for something back there as well.”

Lowdon then turned to F2, and noted that what the young driver is attempting there is evidence that he truly is a “proper racing driver.”

“In terms of Formula Two, I take my hat off to Colton,” Lowdon started.

“I think he’s done something that some drivers shy away from, which is, he’s bet on himself, and I love that. That’s what a proper racing driver does. When it was first mentioned that he might be doing Formula Two, somebody said, ‘[w]ell, you know, I’m not sure if he wants to do that, for a reputation point of view,’ and I thought, ‘if that’s the case, he’s not a race driver.’

“But he does want to do it, and I really love that kind of, ‘I wanna do this because I wanna learn the tracks, I wanna learn the tires, I wanna learn how the Grand Prix weekend works.’ Because he does want to be in Formula One, and that’s what a racer would do,” stated Lowdon. “And you could see from the reaction he got from other drivers on the grid, at the Grand Prix, drivers on the grid who’ve raced with him before in junior Formula and the like, they appreciated that as well, and that meant something to them.”

The Miami Grand Prix and looking ahead

As our time drew to a close, the conversation turned to this weekend.

After a long layoff — due to F1 canceling both the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix due to the ongoing conflict in Iran — F1 returns this week with the Miami Grand Prix. While I will not be heading there for the first time in a few years, Cadillac will be heading to South Beach.

For their first home race.

I asked Lowdon about that, and about the team bringing an upgrade package to the Miami Grand Prix.

”We can’t wait, is the honest answer,” Lowdon said.

“Miami, it’s such a cool place to go. The circuit is so innovative, running around the NFL stadium there, everything is just super cool, in Miami, so it’s great for us to be there. It’s great for it to be the first home race for the team. We know ourselves already that there’s a real growing fan base, and it’s fantastic for us to see that, it really is. We said from the start, we want to offer something a bit different,” continued Lowdon.

The Cadillac boss then walked me through what they are trying to accomplish with a growing fan base here in the United States.

“This is a team that is headquartered in the U.S. We’re investing in these fantastic new facilities up in Indianapolis, which will be the team’s headquarters, and so this is an opportunity for us to really get to know the fans in the U.S. a lot more, as well. And even last year when I was traveling to races, it really took me by surprise how often I got stopped on the street because I was wearing a Cadillac shield on my shirt, and just so many fans were expressing, actually thanks, in some way that that people have put this team together, and in a lot of instances, new fans, new to the sport,” described Lowdon.

“And I just thought, you know, it’s exactly what we wanted to do. Throw our doors open to diehard race fans, new fans, come and follow this journey that Cadillac is on, because it ain’t gonna happen again, and you can be part of it as well. And so that’s kind of the approach that we’re trying to do. A lot of fan-friendly things in Miami, it’s a cool place to do that as well, we’ve got a lot of guests coming as well, and our ownership, so, yeah, everyone, everyone’s looking forward to it.”

Lowdon then addressed the upgrades the team is bringing to Hard Rock Stadium.

“To answer the final bit of your question, yes, we’re bringing some upgrades. Because, in terms of targets for this year, it’s super difficult to put any kind of target on anything other than what we can target, which is constant improvement. And so this upgrade package is one of the first steps on that, and we want to show the fans that we’re closing in to the next team in front, and then keep going, and keep aiming for the next one in front, and just keep going. And the improvement is what I think we should be measured on.”

Our conversation ended with one final question.

What would make 2026 a success story for Cadillac? Would it be improvement? Points? Dare we say a podium result?

”All of the above would be fantastic, but I think realistically, the most important thing, and it’s the one that’s within our control, is constant improvement.

“Every single day we come in here and ask the question: What can we do today to make this team better?

“And everyone in our growing team is saying the same, and it’s not easy to communicate how difficult it is to do this, because the fans quite rightly see two cars on the grid, and kind of everything else looks easy, and it’s not, it’s so difficult, and just being there is not enough,” continued Lowdon. “We have to just constantly improve, and that’s really where we’re gonna grind and focus on what we can do, constantly improve, and then hopefully at some stage look up and, you know, and if we’re in the mix, then that means that we’re going forward, and as I said before, hopefully bring in a lot of fans along with us for the journey.”

That journey continues this week for Cadillac.

This time in front of their home fans in Miami.