F1 News: Cadillac head start on 2026 car will now be restricted

Until now, the Andretti Global (now TWG Global and Cadillac) design team had no restrictions on budget or aero wind tunnel and CFD hours that the other F1 teams have to abide by because they were not an approved F1 team.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The team stated that their goal was to enter F1 in 2026, so with no 2024 or 2025 car to design, their focus turned to the 2026 car before all the other teams. However, their design staff headcount was small compared to the established teams, and the final 2026 F1 Regulations were not finalized until recently. Hence, with head start was restricted in that sense.

Building a new team from scratch, as well as a manufacturing facility is a monumental task, and although they may have had a little head start on the design of the 2026 car, that advantage is quickly overshadowed by their lack of experience and the work and money needed to start a team from scratch.

An official F1 Team as of January 1, 2025.

The Cadillac Formula 1 team will have the joint-highest aerodynamic development allocation in 2025, as its work is no longer unrestricted as of January 1.

The UK-based company operating the team, Andretti Formula Racing, has also been officially renamed Cadillac Formula Racing with the UK government’s companies registrar Companies House.

The team that has been put together in the UK has been working on a baseline 2026 car for several months.

The design team, led by Technical Director Nick Chester, is hard at work on the design of their 2026 F1 car. Chester had a group of around 280 people working full-time on the project at the end of 2024.

Andretti Global (now TWG Global) produced a 2025 F1 model in the Toyota Cologne Wind Tunnel. Although they will never race a 2025 car, it enabled the design team to gel as a team before turning to the 2026 car. Photo courtesy of Andretti Global

Around 50 GM engineers (included in the team’s headcount) are working on the Cadillac F1 program. GM supported the CFD development of the wind tunnel models, and is already manufacturing parts and working on projects such as the roll hoop design and hydraulic systems at its Charlotte, North Carolina base.

Before his removal from the team, Michael Andretti said the GM relationship had brought “immediate benefits” to the project. “It is really great to see race car components that have been designed in-house by Andretti Cadillac, already being manufactured in the USA by GM,” he added.

Chester joined as its F1 technical director last spring, having spent over 20 years at Enstone through the team’s various guises and playing a pivotal role in Renault’s back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006 (that team is now Alpine). He’s supported by head of aerodynamics Jon Tomlinson, formerly of Williams and Renault, and chief designer John McQuilliam, who has nearly four decades’ experience in F1.

The team has been free to do this with zero wind tunnel or CFD testing impediment because F1’s initial rejection of its entry meant it was not subject to any of the regulatory restrictions that exist – including the ban on 2026 aerodynamic testing that other teams were working under until January 1, 2025.

Chester appreciated the chance to build a technical group from scratch, setting the right values and culture from the beginning. “I was pleasantly surprised, in a way, how easy it was to draw people to the project,” he told The Athletic. “There’s a real draw of a new team, the Andretti name. A blank sheet tends to have a very proactive culture.

“We’ve had people joining from Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren. They all wanted a new challenge. It’s that real potential to shape departments, which is very attractive.”

The aerodynamic testing restrictions allow the teams that finish lower in the championship to conduct more wind tunnel and CFD work.

Cadillac will be treated as an ‘equal-last place’ team in 2025. Along with Sauber, which finished last in the constructors’ championship in 2024, Cadillac will get 115% of the baseline amount.

F1 Aero Development Restrictions (ATR) for Jan to June 2025

Will remain last (10th) throughout 2025

Where Cadillac will have a more tangible advantage is that its sole focus will be on the new rules in 2026 while its rivals are fighting a championship on-track in 2025, and spending as little development and money on the current season at the same time.

This means all of Cadillac’s budget and ATR can go towards 2026 where others will be split – but making use of that depends on having a team big enough and mature enough, and access to the relevant facilities.

Team will buy as much as it can from Ferrari

There will be some gains through Cadillac’s Ferrari customer engine deal – taking everything F1’s rules allow, the arrangement will include a supply of engines, gearboxes and the rear suspension, which is a significant amount of work that Cadillac will not have to undertake itself.

However, the rear of the car does not operate in a vacuum, so the challenge of the Cadillac design team with be to make the rear end of the car work mechanically with the front suspension and the aerodynamic balance. Just ask Haas and Sauber, other Ferrari customer teams, just how hard that is.

Cadillac way behind the engine design curve

While the Cadillac design team got a head start on the car design, the Cadillac engine design, slated to come onboard in 2028, is another story.

Cadillac has zero F1 engine design experience, although parent company GM does have a lot of race car engine design, such as IndyCar.

But an F1 engine is the most sophisticated of all race car engines and in 2026, it gets even harder because around 45% of the power must come from the electric motor and the fuel allowed for the internal combustion engine is reduced.  The fuel mileage the F1 engine must get from 2026 onward is insane.

In 2013, 160kg of fuel was used in a race; in 2020, that stood at 100kg; and in 2026 F1 is aiming for each car to use just 70kg of fuel during a Grand Prix.

Moreover, F1 is shifting from controlling the fuel flow through a maximum mass flow rate, to a maximum energy flow rate.

The current 1.6-liter, V6 turbocharged internal combustion engine will evolve to include a far more powerful electrical component. The MGU-K (or Kinetic Motor Generator Unit) will almost triple the amount of electrical power produced by the current hybrid components.

More braking energy – that would otherwise be wasted – will be collected and as a result, the aim is for the MGU-K to produce around 350kW in 2026 – a massive increase on the 120kW of energy currently deployed by the MGU-K and MGU-H.

All of this is a massive undertaking for the GM engine designers.  They all three full years (2025, 2026 and 2027) to produce their first F1 engine.