13 Aug 2026
Formula 1's newest team enters its second half still searching for a maiden points finish, and does so under new leadership after Cadillac replaced team principal Graeme Lowdon with Marcin Budkowski partway through its debut season.
Cadillac remain the only team without a point on the board after eleven rounds of their maiden Formula 1 season, sitting last in the 2026 constructors' championship on zero. According to Formula1.com's half-term review, the team's debut year has been defined by teething problems — including repeated brake fires and a persistent lack of outright pace — even as veterans Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas have worked to build the operation from scratch.
The team's closest brush with a first point came at Monaco, where Perez initially crossed the line tenth, only for a stewards' investigation into a first-lap infringement — noted by race control as a practice-start violation — to drop him to 15th once the penalty was applied. Bottas's best result of the year, according to Formula1.com, came in Bahrain, boosted by a wave of retirements ahead of him; both drivers retired from both the Belgian and Hungarian Grands Prix.
The team announced a leadership change in mid-August, with Marcin Budkowski replacing Graeme Lowdon as team principal. According to GPblog, chief executive Dan Towriss said the move reflected the team's shift toward a longer-term plan as it begins work on its 2027 car alongside continued development of this year's MAC-26, with further updates promised for the second half of the season.
Speedcafe noted before the season began that scoring points in a debut year is far from guaranteed for a brand-new constructor — even Haas, held up as the modern benchmark after scoring 29 points in 2016, is a rare example of quick success. Eleven rounds into life as Formula 1's eleventh team, Cadillac's task for the second half of 2026 is simple to state and evidently difficult to achieve: get either car into the top ten.
After the worst start of any established team in 2026 — 10th in the constructors' championship on a single point — Aston Martin's 16-part upgrade at the Hungarian Grand Prix cut their race-day deficit from over five seconds a lap to close to two, with Honda's first in-season engine upgrade arriving this weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Four seasons after their last title, Mercedes have won eight of the first eleven 2026 races and lead both championships comfortably at the summer break — with rookie-turned-contender Kimi Antonelli out front and George Russell third, their strongest form since the end of the hybrid-dominance era.
Formula 1's reigning world champion has one grand prix win and three retirements through eleven rounds of 2026 — a season shaped more by McLaren's reliability than by his pace.
Williams enter the summer break with just 11 points and their worst season in years, after missing the pre-season Barcelona shakedown and battling an overweight car through the first half of 2026 — a sharp comedown from finishing fifth in the constructors' championship in 2025.