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Not to wish time away - because 2025, with new drivers coming in, could be a great year for Formula 1 - but I'm really looking forward to the 2026 season. Not because of the completely unnecessary regulation changes, but instead the arrival of new teams.
For too long it's been the same-old, same-old but with the all-new GM Cadillac team put together by Andretti Global and Sauber finally becoming Audi, there's a new breed coming to town. And they are taking very different approaches.
Cadillac
Starting up from fresh requires at least a couple of hundred million to invest in facilities, equipment and staff. That means a minimum of around 600 people, of which perhaps 200 need to have current F1 experience. It's very different to when Jordan started up at the beginning of 1990 as back then you just needed a drawing board, a sharp pencil and a couple of people - then away you went.
Putting the team together and getting it to work efficiently is no easy task, although Andretti has been building up the design and development side of the team for some time already with around 280 staff working on the project as of the end of the 2024 season. But it's integrating that next 300 that quadruples the management problems.
General Motors won't simply send over a blank cheque - there will have to be a business plan covering all of that. A year seems a long time, but it disappears very quickly and actually the first year competing is one of the easiest given you will have had a long lead-up to it.
As I said earlier, Cadillac has been working on the design and development of its 2026 car for some time, and even did a significant amount of work on a 2025 design when there was the possibility it might get an entry a year earlier. Up until the end of 2024, there will have been no restrictions in terms of windtunnel and CFD time, which the competing teams have been working under. However, while that will have helped accelerate the process there is so much to do if you are coming in as a new team that it won't come close to balancing out the disadvantage of being a newcomer.
Over 2025, Cadillac can concentrate on structuring the company, continuing to design its 2026 car and work on building it. As part of that, there will have to be significant expansion because of the need to build up the staff. It's not just a race team that is required, but all the other related parts of the operation needed to design, develop and compete.
More on Cadillac's F1 entry
- How Cadillac's F1 development will now be restricted
- Ferrari-Cadillac deal - and the Andretti romance it rekindles
- Should Herta be Cadillac's main US driver choice?
It will be the second and third years that are the toughest, as you will run into all the mistakes you make and, as the races will keep coming thick and fast, you need to focus on improving reliability and development while still building up your team.
When competing in your first year, it's easy to lose focus on the fact that 2027 is just around the corner and even 2028 is fast approaching. With these long seasons, the races are constant so you really need a very nimble structure to make sure you are getting the best from the current car without neglecting the future.
This is why it can easily be your fourth season before you can really assess where you stand. In the meantime, you've probably spent somewhere in the region of $2billion. F1 can be rewarding, but it ain't cheap.
This article was first published in The Race Members' Club on Patreon.
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With Cadillac using the Ferrari power unit, gearbox, hydraulics and rear suspension, that's a useful starting point. However, it's not going to be a Haas-style deal and Cadillac will have to produce more of its own parts.
That raises a big question of what's a works team and what is an independent, but given Cadillac plans to have its own power unit by the end of the decade we can assume it will be using this as a starting point and will produce its own whole car a few years down the line.
Audi
You can argue that Audi taking over an existing team in Sauber means it's not really new. That's true in one way, but actually it can be a more difficult way to go. And as Sauber (but with Audi ownership) over the past couple of seasons, this team hasn't exactly been competitive or shown a real understanding of what's needed to be competitive.
With ex-Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto taking over, there's some big philosophy changes needed and there's a dire need of a move from a mindset of simply existing to a winning mentality. Jonathan Wheatley, Red Bull's long-time sporting director who joins as team principal in July, will be a key part of that.
As with any existing team, there is some deadwood to weed out and that must to be done before new additions can have an impact. And I'm not just talking personnel here, I'm talking systems as well.
No matter what team you walk into, they will believe what they have is state of the art. Sauber led the way years ago as far as its windtunnel was concerned, but it hasn't had the finance and stability to keep it up to date so improving that and its other simulation tools is the first challenge.
Audi is building its own power unit for 2026 so it will be a full works team. There's some outside investment coming in from Qatar, which is no bad thing. It ensures that all investment decisions won't be made from the corporate desks at Audi.
Extra finance, whether it's from a sponsor or investor, always creates a bit of a cushion when you need to invest heavily in the latest equipment.
If I were offered the position of technical director for either project and, assuming the vision and the budgets were similar, I'm pretty sure I would pick the Cadillac option. It's fresh and you can influence its direction immediately. Being new with no real database to work from means it will probably take a little longer to stabilise its performance, but I think it will be stronger in the long term.
So which team will do better? On paper, Audi should have all of the advantages given it's an existing team and Cadillac is building up from nothing. But to be sure of that I want to see a lot more progress from Sauber this year, otherwise it risks being embarrassed by the newcomer come 2026.
