There’s nothing unusual about a team principal holding a press conference before the start of a new Formula 1 season. But this week, that team principal wasn’t preparing at team to race in Melbourne this weekend.

The Cadillac team set to debut in Formula One next year has at least six names on a list of potential drivers and will decide on merit, principal Graeme Lowdon said on Monday.

The Cadillac Formula 1 team will run the majority of its project out of its new facility in Indiana, but will only select an American driver as part of its line-up if they earn their place on

Cadillac's application to join 2026 grid was approved last week — meaning the new team now has work to do in the driver market.

Lowdon explained that regardless of nationality, the Cadillac F1 Team's maiden drivers will be hired on merit.

Cadillac 's team principal Graeme Lowdon has suggested that the driver lineup will feature an American driver based on merit, since Formula One 's new team is based in the US. The comments arrive after Cadillac was confirmed as the sport's eleventh team on March 7, with the outfit gearing up to race from the 2026 season.

Cadillac’s new Formula One team has received final approval from F1 and its governing body, the FIA, to join the grid in 2026. In November, F1 announced it had agreed in principle to allow General Motors, the American car giant, to race from next year with its Cadillac brand, provisionally expanding the field to 11 teams.

Formula 1’s newest team, Cadillac, set to join the grid in 2026, is already at the centre of a fierce driver market tussle, with