Cadillac lose major F1 advantage despite entry confirmation

Cadillac has been officially accepted onto the F1 grid, which will expand to 11 teams for the 2026 season. 

It is the first time since 2016 that there will be 22 cars on the grid, with Manor Racing going bust at the end of that season after being pipped to 10th in the constructors' standings by Sauber. 

Cadillac will be powered by customer Ferrari power units for the 2026 and 2027 seasons whilst General Motors is set to produce its own in-house design for 2028, which will boost F1 to at least six suppliers, with Mercedes, Ferrari, Honda, Audi, and Red Bull Powertrains set to have units. 

Under the leadership of new team principal Graeme Lowdon, Cadillac has been piecing together its technical team, including former Renault chief Nick Chester as technical director and former Benetton, Renault, Williams, and F1 figure Pat Symonds serving as an executive technical consultant.

But in finally being officially confirmed for a slot on the 2026 grid, Cadillac has lost one major advantage: Aerodynamic testing. 

The 10 current teams are bound by what is known as the Aerodynamic Testing Restrictions - or ATR, first introduced for the 2022 ground-effect rules.

The ATR is a sliding scale of wind-tunnel runs and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) where each team is limited on the number of runs or hours it can complete, with the reigning constructors' champions given the fewest and the team who finished last, the most.

For example, Haas who finished seventh in the 2024 standings received the baseline 100% allocation whilst 2024 champions McLaren received only 70% and Stake, who finished last, got 115%. 

It is hoped that this sliding scale, which resets at points throughout the year to reflect the constructors' standings at the time, will lead to a closed-up grid. 

Teams were not allowed to conduct testing on their 2026 designs, featuring active aerodynamics, until January 1st 2025 as per Article 3.c of Appendix 7 of the sporting regulations, but this did not affect Cadillac. 

Now the team has been accepted, it will now be subject to the same rules as the other 10 teams, and enter under the 'New Team' column, entitling it to the same figures as the 10th place team in the constructors', as the tables below show.