Cadillac ‘won’t be last’ verdict offered in F1 arrival impact declaration

Cadillac’s arrival in Formula 1 will be great for American audiences and the sport as a whole, believes Circuit of the Americas boss Bobby Epstein.

The General Motors company will line up on the grid for the first time in F1 2026, with the Cadillac brand set to make its debut under team boss Graeme Lowdon.

Bobby Epstein: Cadillac will be great for us and F1

Cadillac will be the second team on the grid with a US heritage, following in the footsteps of the Haas team, which debuted in 2016.

Both teams have presences in the US and the UK, although Cadillac, through GM, enjoys greater brand visibility in the United States due to being one of the ‘big three’ automotive manufacturers in the country.

Cadillac recently announced its driver line-up for F1 2026, with multiple Grands Prix winners Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez returning to the grid after both spent a year on the sidelines.

Cadillac’s F1 entry will be operated by the TWG Motorsports Group, and will become the 11th team on the grid – the first time F1 has exceeded 10 teams in over a decade.

For race promoters such as Bobby Epstein, the Circuit of the Americas [COTA] chairman, the arrival of Cadillac can only be a good thing for US venues on the F1 calendar.

“I think Cadillac is going to be really great for us, and for the sport,” Epstein told select media, including PlanetF1.com, this week.

“They were here this past weekend for the WEC [World Endurance Championship] race. I think they’re going to be very engaged as a brand, which could be great.

“I think about all the possibilities of things we can do together because they’re a manufacturer; from the Hot Lap ride, which could be a Cadillac ride, to a Cadillac garage tour, to having a focus on getting an American driver.

“That constellation is going to be very good for us.”

More on Cadillac F1 from PlanetF1.com

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👉 Cadillac F1: Everything you need to know about the new 11th team

Bobby Epstein: An American driver would take F1 to ‘next level’ in US

For now, Cadillac won’t have an American driver, but has signed IndyCar star Colton Herta as its reserve driver.

The young American driver has been confirmed as leaving IndyCar and his Andretti seat in order to join Formula 2 in 2026, dovetailing this with F1 testing outings.

Having a driver like Herta, or another American star, would escalate the interest in F1 hugely, believes Epstein.

“For the sport’s sake, separate from just COTA and the grand prix at our track, if there were an American champion driver, that would go a lot farther,” he said.

“That would take it to the next level.”

Cadillac’s arrival coincides with a revolution in the power unit and chassis regulations, but given its lack of experience, it is likely to be towards the back of the field.

With Ferrari power units in the back of its first car, as GM’s own power unit won’t hit the track until 2029, Epstein reckons Cadillac could be a surprise entity next year and catch some established teams unawares.

“I don’t expect them to be the last-place team,” he said.

“So we have to build new garages, because there’s another team on the grid. And someone said, ‘Well, you’re building the Cadillac garages’.

“Those garages are the ones that the last-place team is.

“And I said, ‘What makes you think they’re going to be that garage is going to be for Cadillac? Because I don’t expect them to be the last-place team’.

“And they said, ‘Well, it goes by the year before’, so I forgot about that…

“So they’re automatically, by default, the Cadillac garages. I was like, ‘They’re not going to be the last place team!'”

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