The brand new Cadillac staff gave its first Components 1 automobile a maiden monitor run in a shakedown at Silverstone on Friday.
Sergio Perez drove the automobile because the Mexican’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas watched from the pit lane, with chief govt Dan Towriss additionally current for the landmark event.
The staff posted a brief video on social media of the automobile, shot at a distance, operating down the pit straight at a humid Silverstone, earlier than later sharing additional imagery.
Perez stated: “Today was really an amazing day. Everyone should feel incredibly proud to complete our first laps as a team. Each and every person has worked so hard to get to this moment and it was emotional to be part of motorsport history.
Perez was within the cockpit for the primary run of a Cadillac F1 automobile
Perez is returning to F1 after sitting out 2025
“We can, and should, all enjoy, but it’s absolutely fired me up for more. I just want to get back in and get mileage – this is just the start.”
The Basic Motors-backed outfit’s first challenger is powered by Ferrari engines, which means the shakedown for filming functions may have additionally been the primary time the Italian producer’s new 2026 engine for F1’s revised rules may have run on monitor too.
Cadillac are the second staff to finish a shakedown forward of pre-season’s first check – in Barcelona from January 26-30 – after the rebranded Audi staff ran their new challenger on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya final week.
Perez and Bottas type the staff’s vastly skilled first driver line-up, the race-winning veterans returning to the grid after every spending final yr on the side-lines.
Earlier this week the American-owned staff revealed the particular testing livery its automobile will run in on the Barcelona check.
Perez (L) and team-mate Valtteri Bottas convey enormous expertise to Cadillac
It’s a largely naked carbon design which options the Cadillac brand unfold over the rear of the automobile, whereas the names of founding members of the staff are inscribed everywhere in the chassis.
The staff’s last livery, which will probably be used on the last two testing occasions in Bahrain and for the 2026 season, is being revealed throughout the Tremendous Bowl on February 8.
Cadillac have develop into F1’s eleventh staff and are the primary new entrant on the grid since Haas in 2016.
Lowdon happy with Cadillac progress on ’emotional’ day
Cadillac staff principal Graeme Lowdon instructed Sky Sports activities Information the landmark second had been an “emotional” expertise for the entire staff after years of onerous work.
“It was actually quite emotional,” he stated. “We’re dealing with mechanical items here, but it is actually the embodiment of all of the hard work that’s gone in from everyone.
Perez stated it had been ‘an incredible day’ for the staff
“All those late nights and overnights and early mornings, both on this side of the Atlantic in the Silverstone facilities and across the Atlantic in Indianapolis and Charlotte, and all of our colleagues at General Motors and TWG.
“So, it was truly fairly emotional. There was some actual emotion from everybody, accurately, as a result of it is simply an enormous quantity of onerous work.”
While he admitted Friday’s running hadn’t been without challenges, Lowdon said he was pleased on the whole with the progress that had been made.
Cadillac staff principal Graeme Lowdon (L) and chief govt Dan Towriss have been in attendance at Silverstone
“With a shakedown, in reality, you never plan too much, because there are just so many unknowns,” he stated. “It’s the first time that the car has literally ever turned a wheel.
“However the principle factor is we achieved the important thing issues that we needed to attain, which was get on the market, get some laps underneath our belts, begin gathering some very precious knowledge, and begin on this path in direction of racing in Melbourne, and that’s actually simply across the nook.”
When is F1 pre-season testing?
The introduction of latest rules means there’s a strong schedule of three separate testing occasions earlier than the beginning of the 2026 season.
The primary is a behind-closed-doors occasion in Barcelona from January 26-30, earlier than two checks comply with in Bahrain from February 11-13 and 18-20.
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Components 1 explains the brand new 2026 regulation adjustments, together with what is going to substitute DRS, in a plan to permit nearer racing subsequent yr. Video courtesy of F1.
When is the primary F1 race?
The groups then have two weeks to organize for the opening spherical of the season, which is the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne from March 6-8.
The primary observe classes of the season will happen on Friday 6 March, with Qualifying on Saturday 7 March and the opening race on Sunday 8 March.
Watch all 24 race weekends from the 2026 Components 1 season stay on Sky Sports activities F1. Stream Sky Sports activities with NOW – No contract, cancel anytime
