Graham Loudon: You have to respect those who are already in the game

      Cadillac F1 CEO Graham Loudon believes that many underestimate the seriousness of the challenges facing the new team.…

      Graham Loudon: "Imagine if we finish ahead of a team next year? If I were the head of such a team, I would be annoyed: "How did this happen? These guys are just getting started." Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that this will happen, I'm saying that you need to respect those who are already in the game.

      One of the strangest things about evaluating a new team is that it evaluates your value, what you can bring to Formula 1. It's clear that value is created through competitiveness, but all the rules are designed to actually make you uncompetitive. We know how much it really costs to train a Formula 1 team, but at the same time we hear: "You can only spend a quarter of that amount in the first year, but we still want you to fight on the track."

      If the task was just to repeat what was done at Haas F1, it would be much easier. I have a lot of respect for Haas F1, but it's just different. And many people don't understand this. We have to follow many rules right now. They just weren't there when the Haas F1 appeared. Since then, the rules of the game have changed a lot. But we knew it would be like this.

      From the point of view of internal expectations, everything is quite simple. For all participants, including owners from TWG and GM, this is not the first race. They have a lot of experience in motorsport and other sports, they understand and are very realistic about difficulties. We were lucky with that. TWG Motorsports owns teams from IndyCar to Formula E, and GM's projects are equally diverse. The team has experienced specialists, but it is important to convey to the fans how big a task we face.

      We respect our rivals. We want to become competitive and challenge them, but everyone needs to understand how difficult it really will be."