Cadillac Team Principal Graeme Lowdon has remained tight-lipped on the subject of which drivers it will sign for its debut Formula 1 season next year.
The American marque‘s much-anticipated maiden campaign is now just eight months away, and has so far yet to secure the signature of anyone to take the reins of its cars.
Speculation has been continuously mounting as to who will be eventually hired, with Valtteri Bottas one of the leading figures, more so after his hilarious social media post, in which the Finn declared a Cadillac SUV was “a nice seat.”
This came before further reports that the Mercedes reserve driver was top of its wishlist, with Motorsport Week revealing both he and Lowdon were seen in deep discussion at last month’s Monaco Grand Prix.
Bottas’ former Sauber partner Zhou Guanyu, Sergio Perez and Mick Schumacher have also been touted as potential signings, but Lowdon indicated that priorities are currently lying with preparation off-track.
“A good comment from someone walking around when they saw all the stuff that was going on was, ‘you know, I can see why the drivers aren’t the number one thing on the list’ – nothing’s decided yet,” he said.
Experienced drivers could ‘benefit Cadillac hugely’
Some recent reports have indicated that the Silverstone-based squad is as yet unsure as to what angle it wants to take in terms of the team’s driver line-up.
The two options are that it hires two drivers with a wealth of experience, which would point towards a Bottas and Perez combination.
Cadillac’s second option is to sign one veteran and pivot towards a younger driver, which could suggest someone along the lines of Felipe Drugovich, who is currently reserve driver for Aston Martin, and publicly keen to find a seat.
Former F1 driver-turned pundit Karun Chandhok suggested over the Austrian Grand Prix weekend that another option could be F2 star and McLaren junior driver Alex Dunne, who impressed in his FP1 outing at the Red Bull Ring.
Lowdon gave little indication as to what it will decide, but hinted that looking for a driver with a number of races under their belt is going to be a logical solution.
“Yes, we know who’s in the market, we’ve got a good idea of what we need, but we’re still some way off reaching that stage,” he added.
“I think there’s a very strong argument to say that a new team in its first year of racing would benefit hugely from people who are experienced in Formula 1.”
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