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Now that the General Motors-Cadillac project has an agreement in principle in place to join the Formula 1 grid, attention will surely turn quickly to the remaining hurdles to overcome in preparation for a 2026 entry.
Chief among those is ensuring an engine supply deal - Ferrari is understood to be its preference - is finalised, and of course completing the design of its first ever F1 car for the new ruleset.
Then there's the small matter of who drives it. Will the desire for at least one American driver (and a preference for Colton Herta) from the initial, Michael-Andretti led version of this programme be retained? Can you beat a blend of youth and experience for a fledgling F1 project? Or now it's got an entry, should GM throw caution to the wind with its choices?
We asked our team who they'd pick for Cadillac's first F1 driver line-up - a question that prompted plenty of left-field picks.
Hold a shootout
Scott Mitchell-Malm
Cadillac's strategy is clear to me: an experienced driver and an American rookie. But I have a specific idea for how to decide the latter: a shootout.
It would be too easy to say Colton Herta should get the 'US driver slot' (and given his history with F1 who knows if he'll ever get that elusive superlicence). Herta's a really fun driver and I would love to see how he does in F1 but I don't want to default to the stereotypical 'younger American driver doing well in IndyCar' pick.
So, round up a few drivers - like Herta, his Andretti IndyCar team-mate Kyle Kirkwood, ex-F1 driver Logan Sargeant, Aston Martin junior/F2 race winner/Andretti Formula E reserve Jak Crawford - and evaluate them properly.
I don't imagine Cadillac's sportscars can just be wheeled out for the purpose of testing potential F1 drivers but it wouldn't be a huge stretch to make something happen in semi-relevant machinery. Zak Brown is an obvious mate of this whole enterprise and McLaren has a prolific old-car testing programme after all...
As for the experienced seat, it should ideally go to someone who still has a good chunk of career remaining. I think Yuki Tsunoda would be a wonderful target even though he should have better opportunities. But I would also warmly welcome a reprieve for Valtteri Bottas.
An obvious pairing
Ben Anderson
Even though the Andretti name has been marginalised, I suspect the push to include an American driver will remain - and the best bet for that slot has to be 2024 IndyCar runner-up Herta.
The superlicence points system could scupper him again, as it did when Red Bull was interested in bringing him into F1 back in 2022, but bagging 30 points this year means a top-four finish in IndyCar in 2025 should get him over the line.
I think everyone would fancy a piece of Franco Colapinto and the incredible buzz - and commercial interest - he's generating in South America right now, but I suspect whoever gets him onto the grid next year will keep him tightly under lock and key!
I'm sure Aston Martin's Felipe Drugovich and Jak Crawford will push themselves forward, but they probably don't have much chance unless Cadillac wants to go 'all-American' (with Crawford), or decides a bit of extra cash and Drugovich's F2 pedigree and testing background is worth more than prior F1 race experience.
The potential need for a steady, experienced hand brings a few of those drivers who will be cleared out at the end of 2024 back into the mix.
Bottas, who is heading for a Mercedes reserve role in 2025 and has declared himself interested in the new Cadillac/GM F1 project, is the one guy dropping off the grid with his reputation intact.
Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez, for different reasons, probably offer better commercial benefits in the US market than Bottas does, but Ricciardo and Perez are both damaged goods as drivers after a sequence of poor seasons in F1's ground-effect era.
So, if I'm in charge at Cadillac, I'm going Bottas/Herta for 2026.
A surprise return
Mark Hughes
Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta.
You'd get F1 experience and still great speed from Grosjean, who's also spearheaded a start-up project before (with Haas in 2016). Herta's still young and has great speed too.
Aim for 2026's (potential) best free agent of all
Jack Benyon
Let's start with Alex Palou, as I know this is a controversial pick because Herta is the nailed-on favourite as an IndyCar driver being backed for the Andretti-run or Andretti-housed F1 team.
Palou is available, as The Race revealed earlier this year he has a get-out clause for F1 teams in his Ganassi IndyCar contract. But, more importantly, he's the kind of 'robot' that would have the chance of adapting to F1.
If I wanted to put the fastest driver over one lap in the car it'd be Herta. But Palou is more consistent and has found that blend between speed and consistency easier to come by than Herta, even if the latter has driven for an IndyCar team that has been inconsistent too.
Palou knows the European tracks and tyres too, and would be better equipped to hit the ground running all around, as he's spent more time in McLaren's F1 cars than Herta.
As for my other pick, George Russell, if things go as he'd like he may well not be available to a start-up team in 2026.
But if Max Verstappen can be persuaded to Mercedes, or Kimi Antonelli has a Lewis Hamilton-like first season in F1, then Russell might be made the number two in his own team - or even get booted out completely.
A GM-backed team - presumably bringing massive resources - should be aiming for the best and that's what Russell would be on the 2026 free agency market.
If he doesn't become available - in the first highlighted scenario of course he could also replace Verstappen at Red Bull - then Sergio Perez would be a great option if he hasn't sat totally idle in 2025. Commercially, and for the fact that he has plenty to prove after a tough Red Bull stint.
Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon haven't done badly since being booted out of Red Bull, and I don't reckon Perez would be any different if he was properly motivated.
Exploit the F2 gold rush
Val Khorounzhiy
There's a pretty short list of F1-proven official free agents for 2026, but Cadillac would probably have a decent shot at almost all of them (bar Russell, who I'm not convinced would join an unproven start-up).
My first move would be to sound out Kevin Magnussen for a 2025 development gig. He hasn't always had a reputation for being a truly development-minded driver, but is fast enough and has been around for long enough to be an asset.
But there's a good chance he would only accept a 2025 deal with a 2026 seat guarantee as part of it, and if that's the case the team would be prudent to explore other options first.
Assuming Yuki Tsunoda doesn't get promoted to Red Bull, the optics are that he doesn't really have a clear long-term future with the energy drinks company - nor much chance of an Aston Martin move that its 2026 Honda tie-in suggested looked likely.
He could be a good spearhead and a credible performance benchmark for a start-up like Cadillac.
As for the other seat, while Herta is a logical choice, both from a PR standpoint and as a path of least resistance and as a driver of clear potential, as an alternative route I would try to exploit the Formula 2 driver 'gold rush'.
Liam Lawson and Franco Colapinto have made themselves into F1-proven options without really conquering F2, so there's an argument to try to 'buy low' on some of their similar-performing F2 peers - it's just a question of which one.
I have gone for Victor Martins - a race winner in his two F2 seasons so far - because I reckon he has the highest upside of those currently in the F2 system, but you could also try a Paul Aron or even a Richard Verschoor.
A different US star
Samarth Kanal
Palou is a solid choice for this verdict, but here's a more left-field rookie/veteran pairing.
Driver number one would be Bottas. Forget this season as the Sauber just hasn't been up to scratch; Bottas's experience and pace shouldn't be overlooked by a new F1 team.
Just as Audi went for experience with Nico Hulkenberg, Cadillac should follow suit and snap up the Finn, who helped Mercedes secure five straight F1 constructors' titles while he was there.
The other driver I'm picking is one plenty of fans have proclaimed as the GOAT: Kyle Larson.
I'm not going to go into whether Larson is a better "all-round" driver than Max Verstappen, which the American claimed this August, but Larson is genuinely great. He's one of the best stock car racing drivers ever and he has the same, ruthless commitment to racing as F1's new four-time champion. Who wouldn't want to see them go head-to-head?
Larson has also won the Daytona 24 Hours and fared all right in his Indianapolis 500 appearance.
The adaptable American has already been tipped for an F1 test by McLaren boss Zak Brown, and Larson drives for Chevrolet in NASCAR - so the General Motors link is already there.
Give him a shot. Maybe he'll get the triple crown too. OK, you can play me off the stage now.
If you wanted left-field...
Sam Smith
They’ve been team-mates at Cadillac already this season, so this choice is both logical and plug-in-and-play. It’s the two Alex's: Alex Palou and...Alex Lynn, of course!
Before our dear readers kick their screens in, let me do some explaining.
Palou needs little introduction of course. His sensational IndyCar career feels as though it's barely started but he's already a triple champion and the outstanding consistent performer by some margin.
But Alex Lynn? That Alex Lynn? The one who wasn't really a hotshot, on the F1 radar anyway?
Yes, that Alex Lynn. The one who has won in Formula E, the IMSA SportsCar Championship and been a force in the World Endurance Championship's golden period right now in the Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac Hypercar. And let's not forget, he was a GP3 champion and a five-time GP2 race winner as well.
He'd still be hungry at 32, a dozen years younger than Fernando Alonso, and would be a strong, reliable and rational foil for Palou, bringing a detailed and expansive technical knowledge that other whippersnappers just don't have. He was also known as one of the 'megas' of the Williams F1 simulator in his day.
Left-field, yes. But for a bedding in season or two it would be fun to see how it worked.
An exciting, youthful double-act
Charley Williams
It seems obvious, right? When talks of this project entering F1 first started, one driver's name was persistently mentioned: Colton Herta.
You can't ignore marketability when it comes to choosing your line-up, and an American driver in an American car would be huge. But in this case, it's just an added bonus to Herta's natural speed and raw talent.
He would already have been in F1 had his superlicence situation not scuppered his shot at the AlphaTauri seat at the back end of 2022, but Cadillac's 2026 entry means Herta has time to pursue those superlicence points he's been missing.
So who do you pair with a driver with tonnes of single-seater experience but not in F1? A driver who has some F1 experience, but who is also still very much in the early phase of their career: Franco Colapinto.
In just seven races, he's convinced just about everyone that he deserves to be on the grid but, right now, there's every chance Colapinto ends up a free agent next season.
With many of the current teams locking in their drivers with multi-year deals, 2026 isn't looking much more promising either - which makes Cadillac the perfect answer to both parties' problems.
