Cadillac boss Graeme Lowdon has detailed the key learnings made by the team as part of its TPC outing with Sergio Perez.
Last week, Perez drove a 2023-spec blacked-out Ferrari at Imola in Cadillac's first on-track running, with the new team set to be supplied by Maranello power units.
Cadillac is yet to complete formal on-track running with a car of its own, with this expected to come in a filming day in January 2026, prior to pre-season testing in Barcelona at the end of the month.
Breaking down what happened in Italy with the test, former Marussia chief Lowdon explained how fake FIA email addresses, ERS emergencies, and start procedures were all key parts of the team's learning processes.
"It was a very useful exercise to do," Lowdon told media, including RacingNews365.
"We've got this race-ready programme and as a new team, we've got a huge amount of experience, there are two-and-a-half thousand years of experience in senior positions, but less than one year of all working together.
"On the engineering side, we've been doing these rehearsal races, which are very realistic, put the headphones on, and we run the whole weekend as if we were at the track.
"We submit every document to a pretend FIA email address that we've set up, and everything is simulated, and we're thrown into those scenarios of different things which can happen, like an issue with parts supply or on track during the race.
"Obviously, it doesn't give the mechanics any chance as you can't simulate working on a car, and we wanted to fill that gap, and that was the focus of the TPC test, it wasn't to test the car.
"It wasn't our car, and we're grateful to Ferrari for lending us a Formula 1 car because we want to make everything as realistic as possible, and for the mechanics going through things like blanket procedures, start procedures, rapid turnaround for Q1 to Q2, there is only one way to do it, and that's with a Formula 1 car.
"There was an awful lot to [do], go out, come back in, simulate a car coming back in, what to do if there is an alarm on the ERS system, cars coming in the pit-lane and reminding mechanics who have come from different teams that different power units have different procedures for ERS emergencies.
"It was super useful, I'm really pleased we did it, and for any other team looking to come into Formula 1, I would highly, highly recommend going through the same process to go racing."
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