The Cadillac F1 Team is relying on its cost-capped approach and ambitions for long-term growth to attract talent as it builds its Formula 1 operation.
The new team has made progress during its first season, but has yet to score a point since making its debut at the start of the year.
Having arrived to much fanfare and a SuperBowl livery reveal, the team continues to build slowly over the course of 2026.
Team Principal Graeme Lowdon said its ability to compete within F1’s financial constraints was familiar territory for an organisation being built from scratch.
“I’ve spent my entire career in cost-capped environments, either through regulation or simply through funding, and 99 per cent of the world’s motorsport is cost-capped in that same way, one way or another,” Lowdon told RacingNews365.
“Very few people have had the opportunity in the past to have unlimited, you know, on the face of it, unlimited resources.
“And the one thing that’s very clear from the cap is that, if you do have unlimited resources, it’s a very different game – a totally different game.”
Lowdon’s comments came as Cadillac continues to build the personnel and infrastructure required to compete with established F1 teams, with the cost cap limiting the financial advantage traditionally available to the championship’s biggest operations.
The team has also made attracting personnel a priority, with Lowdon arguing that its status as a new operation can be an advantage when recruiting people who want to help build something rather than join an established structure.
The challenge is there for everyone to see. That’s clear, and I think there are a lot of people who find that very appealing as well, to be part of something fresh and take on a big challenge.
Graeme Lowdon
“I hope so. I hope that we’ve demonstrated that it’s a team with bold ambition. We do want to constantly improve. I think that’s attractive to good people,” Lowdon told RacingNews365.
“The challenge is there for everyone to see. That’s clear, and I think there are a lot of people who find that very appealing as well, to be part of something fresh and take on a big challenge.”
Lowdon said Cadillac’s aim was to create an environment capable of retaining the people it attracts as well as recruiting further talent.
“Hopefully we’ve demonstrated that the way we want to operate creates a good environment as well. It’s fundamentally a racing team, and I think the best teams in the world are built around that ethos of a high-performance environment. That’s certainly what we’re trying to build.
“It’s not easy, but if we get it right, then I think it really will be attractive. Internally, one of our managers said, and I agree with it, that we want to make this the team that everybody wants to join, everyone’s proud to be a part of, and nobody wants to leave.”
“If we can achieve that, then we’ll attract the very best people, build the very best team, and hopefully the results will follow.”
For Cadillac, the approach reflects the reality of establishing an 11th team alongside organisations with decades of F1 experience.
Lowdon’s comments suggest the team’s proposition to prospective employees is built around the opportunity to help create that structure, while the cost cap provides a financial framework in which Cadillac believes it can close the gap to more established rivals.
