Cadillac Team Principal Graeme Lowdon has outlined the team’s expectations ahead of its maiden Formula 1 race at the Australian Grand Prix.
Having spent the last two years preparing for its maiden F1 race, Cadillac is now just weeks away from taking to the grid for the first time.
Its preparations have been extensive, simulating races from its facilities in the UK and United States every weekend since the Spanish GP.
Attracting talent from across the motorsport spectrum, Cadillac is widely expected to be at the back of the field on debut, despite its impressive preparation.
Team Principal Graeme Lowdon admits uncertainty and trepidation has crept into the team, with the competitive order remaining a mystery.
“It’s difficult. Success in terms of the Melbourne race – nobody knows that, nobody knows where anybody’s going to finish,” Lowdon said at the Autosport Business Exchange London to delegates, including Motorsport Week.
“If you ask any team principal at the minute where they think they’ll be competitively, if they give you a relative answer, then they’re just making it up.
“Nobody knows, which is why the fans tune in.”
Cadillac focused on internal goals
Lowdon confirmed the team is focusing on its internal goals, and earning the respect of their well established competitors.
“We look at the things that we can control ourselves,” he said
“And obviously, we want to execute well as a team, but nobody really sees that externally.
“One of the things that we’ve often said is the first target for us is to earn the respect of the other teams.
“We respect them, rightly so. This is a world championship. So that’s the first target for us.
“But then we want to compete with them, but also we want to contribute. Talking to Jim [DeLorenzo, global head of sports at Apple] earlier, it’s so exciting what Apple are doing and the various plans that they have.
“I’m passionate about motorsport, but I still think that we’ve got a massive opportunity to take this sport to more and more fans, and we want to contribute to that as well.
“So a key thing for us is we don’t want fans to follow what we’re doing. We want them to join us.”
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