The Cadillac Formula 1 team took to the Silverstone circuit to shakedown its 2026 car for the first time on Friday.
Cadillac will join the F1 grid as its 11th team in 2026, and ahead of its debut completed a filming day at the British Grand Prix track with Mexican driver Sergio Perez at the wheel.
Perez was joined by team-mate Valtteri Bottas and reserve driver Zhou Guanyu to carry out the shakedown of the American team's single-seater. Cadillac shared a clip of its first F1 racer running on track, which also offered a preview of the engine note of its Ferrari power unit.
In addition, Zhou also uploaded a video showing himself wearing the Cadillac team kit, while obscuring any image of the car, which will be revealed in a Super Bowl advert next month ahead of the first of F1’s two Bahrain test sessions.
Cadillac reportedly placed stickers over the phone cameras of anyone who could leak images of the car – with exceptions made for the team’s own filming crew. However, some long-distance images of the car in the Silverstone garages have already appeared on social media.
As well as issues with prying eyes around the Northamptonshire track, Cadillac also reportedly experienced difficulties running in the morning. However, it later managed to fire up the engine and began lapping that was made more challenging by the weather at Silverstone.
An Autosport source revealed that Perez is so far the only Cadillac driver to make it out on track, with the Mexican reportedly at Silverstone for the filming day before returning to Mexico – where he will fulfil commercial commitments next week. The six-time grand prix winner travelled to the team’s base to address technical aspects of the car this week before its first outing. Team-mate Bottas also shared on social media that he had been at the team’s base for a seat fit this week.
Cadillac’s on-track debut follows a similar shakedown event for Audi, which has taken over the Sauber team for 2026. The team hosted a filming day at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last week.
In tests such as this, teams are permitted to run up to 200km and must use different tyre compounds from Pirelli compared with the rubber that will be available at the pre-season tests and during the F1 season.
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- The Autosport.com Team
Source: Autosport