Cadillac is preparing for one of the toughest periods of its debut Formula 1 season, with at least eight Grands Prix set to be packed into just 11 weeks. The demanding schedule will put every team under pressure, but for a new operation still expanding its workforce, production capacity and internal processes, the challenge is even greater.
At the same time, Cadillac cannot afford to stand still technically. The American team will bring further aerodynamic developments to Baku, while Sergio Perez is also set to receive Ferrari’s latest ADUO2 power unit specification for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Cadillac faces an intense eight-race F1 run in 11 weeks
With the final shape of the 2026 calendar still being defined and Imola remaining ready to replace Abu Dhabi as the venue for the season finale if required, Formula 1 teams are preparing for a relentless end to the championship.
The workload has become even heavier following the return of the Bahrain Grand Prix, which will be staged at Sepang in Malaysia. Fortunately for the teams, Kuala Lumpur is relatively close to Singapore, where Formula 1 will race the following week, reducing the amount of travel between those two events. Even so, adding another race means teams are preparing to tackle three consecutive triple-headers, separated by only a single free weekend, before the championship reaches its conclusion.
Formula 1 teams have become accustomed to extremely demanding second halves of the season, but the situation is more complicated for Cadillac because this is its first year in the championship. The organisation needs a continuous chain of work stretching from the factories to the race track, with little margin for disruption. The scale of the challenge is particularly notable given how recently Cadillac entered Formula 1. Earlier in the season, the team introduced its biggest upgrade package of 2026 in Austria as it continued trying to close the gap to the midfield.
Smaller F1 teams cannot rotate every key member of staff
The largest teams have long used staff rotation programmes to reduce the strain of increasingly congested Formula 1 calendars. But that solution is not available to every team or every role.
Smaller operations cannot always draw on equally large groups of personnel, while some positions are inherently difficult to rotate. Race engineers, sporting directors and specialists working directly around each driver — from performance engineers and driver performance engineers to personnel responsible for power unit operation — can be difficult to replace from one weekend to another. The pressure is not limited to people travelling to the circuits. Factory-based staff must also adapt to the time zones of flyaway races in order to provide remote support throughout each event.
“The sequence of flyaway races that characterises the final months of the Formula 1 season puts significant pressure on the team,” Cadillac team principal Marcin Budkowski said. “There is pressure on our trackside group, who are forced to travel continuously from one continent to another.”
For personnel who cannot easily be replaced because of their specific responsibilities or the internal hierarchy among mechanics, the amount of time spent at home could fall to only four or five days across almost two months. Long-haul events make that situation even more demanding because teams often have to travel several days before track activity begins.
Cadillac production department also faces major strain
The compressed calendar creates another challenge away from the race track: keeping the production department supplied and responsive.
By this stage of a Formula 1 season, teams normally have reasonable stocks of many car components and the flow of major upgrades begins to decrease. However, any unexpected reliability problem or accident can suddenly generate additional production demands at a time when the factories are already working heavily on the 2027 project: “There is pressure on the production department, which has to keep pace with the requirements of multiple races concentrated into a very short period,” Budkowski explained, “and pressure on the factory support activities, where people will work hours that are extremely difficult to reconcile with everyday life in order to support the race team, often on the other side of the world.”
Cadillac is still expanding its Formula 1 operation
There is an additional complication for Cadillac because, in its first Formula 1 season, not every component is manufactured completely in-house.
The organisation is still growing and has relied on external companies to help manufacture certain parts. That approach has been necessary during the team’s expansion, but meeting deadlines can become more difficult when requests arrive in quick succession during a tightly packed run of races. Behind the scenes, Cadillac is also going through a broader transformation. The team is expanding in line with its long-term ambitions while simultaneously trying to eliminate some of the operational shortcuts Budkowski discussed at Zandvoort.
That means Cadillac must continue reshaping its internal structure at exactly the same time as it enters the most demanding part of the championship — a difficult balancing act for an organisation still completing its first Formula 1 campaign.
Cadillac will test further aerodynamic updates at Baku
Against that backdrop, Cadillac heads to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix determined to continue developing the MAC-26 without losing momentum.
Small aerodynamic updates are planned for Baku and will be evaluated during free practice. The focus is on finding additional downforce, one of the areas in which Cadillac’s current car remains most deficient. It would also not be surprising to see the team use larger brake ducts again in an effort to avoid overheating problems, another issue Cadillac has had to manage during its debut season.
Baku itself will present a particularly demanding combination of efficiency and energy-management requirements, with the long full-throttle sections placing added importance on how effectively teams deploy their 2026 power units.
Sergio Perez to receive Ferrari ADUO2 power unit at Baku
Alongside the aerodynamic developments, Perez is finally set to receive the latest specification of Ferrari’s power unit, known as ADUO2.
Ferrari first introduced the updated specification at Monza, but there were not enough units available at that stage to extend it immediately to every customer car.
The timing should be useful for Cadillac. Baku places considerable emphasis on energy management and straight-line performance, so having access to additional power from Ferrari’s latest specification should provide Perez with a valuable advantage on the circuit’s lengthy full-throttle sections.
The challenge therefore comes on two fronts for Cadillac. It must continue improving the performance and reliability of its first Formula 1 car while simultaneously ensuring that a still-developing organisation can cope with one of the most demanding stretches of the entire season.
For an established front-running team with a large workforce and mature production systems, eight races in 11 weeks already represents a significant test. For Cadillac, still building many of those structures while racing every other week, the final phase of 2026 will be an even greater examination of how quickly the project has developed.
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