Formula 1 enters a new team

Formula 1 enters Cadillac as new constructor

Sports | October 2025

Formula 1, the top racing champion-ship in the world, brings the best of the best drivers worldwide with expert engineering teams trying to perfect cars to bring onto the circuit. In this highly competitive market, 10 teams compete for the world championship title.

Recently, the FIA (Fédération Inter-nationale de l'Automobile) decided it was time to raise the stakes with a brand-new team for the 2026 season, Cadillac. Cadillac will be the only American car company to compete since Ford in 2004. The two returning drivers for the grid are Sergio Checo Perez and Valtteri Bottas. Perez retired from Oracle Red Bull Racing in 2024. He raced for teams the Kick Sauber, McLaren, and Force India Racing Point.

Valtteri Bottas, who is currently the reserve driver for Mercedes, will be assigned the secondary-drive slot. He has driven for teams such as Williams racing and Alfa Romeo/Kick Sauber. Bottas has also won 10 Grand Prix and 57 others, standing on second and third place podiums while Perez has six Grand Prix wins and 39 podium standings.

Fans speculate whether the engineering team behind the Cadillac car can keep up with the hype built around the team.Nonetheless, Cadillac has strong competition half way through the 2025 season. Backmarker teams are starting to challenge the best teams with constructors Kick Sauber and Visa Cash App Racing Bulls starting to get drivers on the grid.

Student opinions

McLaren is the current world champion this year, but sophomore Brennan Watson wants to cheer for the Cadillac F1 team in the 2026 season. “I want to go support for a team of my nationality,” Watson said.

Sophomore Parker Rash, a fan of the former Oracle Red Bull racing driver Sergio Checo Perez, is happy Sergio is back in the racing series. “I think it’s cool that Cadillac is giving Sergio a second chance. He is a really talented driver, but many thought his career was over after he swapped to Red Bull. He wasn't performing as well as he used too, but I blame the Red Bull engineering team for building a tractor of a racing car,” said Rash.

Sophomore student Goutham Sudeesh, a fan of the F1 constructor Ferrari, thinks Cadillac will end up being a backmarker team, a team where the drivers constantly finish in the rear of the grid and are lapped by other teams due to disadvantages in funding, talent, or technology. Sudeesh said, “Cadillac has the drivers and the talent but, ultimately, will end up as a backmarker team along with other constructors like Alpine or Haas who are still new to the formula grid and only compete in other racing series like the 24 hours of Daytona. But I do have hope that they will do better than other teams as the car they built for the racing series just won the championship.”

Nonetheless, the grid for the 2026 season will be highly competitive. There have already been major events take place on the grid with teams like Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, a notorious backmarker team, having gotten both of their drivers on the podium. Teams like Kick Sauber and Williams are also getting drivers on the podium. Whatever part of the grid with Cadillac F1 team races on, it will be extremely high competition no matter what.

Current F1 constructors standings

• McLaren: 650 points

• Mercedes: 325 points

• Ferrari: 298 points

• Red Bull Racing: 290 points

• Williams: 102 points

• Racing Bulls: 72 points

• Aston Martin: 68 points

• Kick Sauber: 55 points

• Haas: 46 points

• Alpine: 20 points