Cadillac’s journey to the 2026 Components 1 grid has reached one other milestone with its first in-person observe outing as common driver Sergio Perez took the wheel of a Ferrari SF-23 at Imola.
Cadillac, which can change into F1’s eleventh group subsequent yr, has been conducting simulation work with its improvement drivers for a very long time, and has just lately been capable of feed 2026 racer Perez into its workflow.
However by not having a present regulation automotive, the group has largely been caught within the digital world up to now. That has now modified because the group concluded a cope with its energy unit provider Ferrari to mortgage a two-year-old Ferrari SF-23, which satisfies F1’s Testing of a Earlier Automobile laws.
On Wednesday, 30 Ferrari group members assisted round 20 Cadillac members as they moved into pitboxes 16 and 17 at Imola. Mexican F1 veteran Perez will run the automotive, which runs in a unadorned carbon fibre livery, for 2 days. The 2023 machine was first given a shakedown by Ferrari take a look at driver Arthur Leclerc at Fiorano on Tuesday.
Talking solely to Motorsport.com on the latest Singapore Grand Prix, Cadillac group principal Graeme Lowdon stated the target of the Ferrari mortgage was primarily to provide his group a primary alternative to begin working collectively in an actual trackside surroundings and provides the squad hands-on operational follow with a present spec F1 automotive to drill procedures.
“Truly, present group testing is type of what we’re curious about. We need to use a automotive, as a result of in the entire simulations that we talked about, we try to make it as actual to life as potential,” Lowdon stated.
Cadillac Racing group members within the pitlane
Picture by: Jacopo Rava
“I feel everybody will get a bit bit wrongly involved, that in a roundabout way we are able to get a bonus by testing another person’s automotive or one thing. However we’re not testing the automotive, we’re testing the folks.
“Sure, we need to acquire the benefit, however not from something to do with the automotive. The benefits that we wish is for our mechanics to have the identical expertise that every one the mechanics on this pitlane are having on daily basis working with every automotive.”
He added: “You must get the mechanics used to that muscle reminiscence of working an F1 automotive. You’ve gotten to have the ability to stick tyre blankets on, after which there’s simply the scale of a automotive and the warmth that comes off one, and the presence that they’ve.”
Perez’s 2026 colleague Valtteri Bottas must wait longer to begin his Cadillac function, with the Finn nonetheless tied to Mercedes as its reserve driver till the tip of the 2025 season.
Images from Cadillac’s testing
Perez Cadillac Imola testing, in photographs
Perez Cadillac Imola testing, in photographs
Perez Cadillac Imola testing, in photographs
Perez Cadillac Imola testing, in photographs
Perez Cadillac Imola testing, in photographs
Perez Cadillac Imola testing, in photographs
Perez Cadillac Imola testing, in photographs
Perez Cadillac Imola testing, in photographs
Perez Cadillac Imola testing, in photographs
Perez Cadillac Imola testing, in photographs
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