“It Can’t Be Good”: Guenther Steiner Reasons Why Bringing American Driver to F1 Could Be Futile for Cadillac

While it has been known for quite some time that Cadillac will be entering the 2026 grid as F1’s 11th team, the news was made official only earlier this week. The General Motors-backed American F1 project, however, isn’t the only one trying to establish itself from across the pond.

For almost a decade now, the Haas F1 team has represented the USA on the grid. That said, they never fielded an American driver on their roster.

But with Cadillac, that could change. The team has been heavily connected to the Andretti family who are keen to bring an American driver onto the grid in 2026.

Former Haas F1 team boss Guenther Steiner, however, believes it is unwise for them to be hell-bent on wanting an American driver, who is likely to be inexperienced.

“Pairing a young team with a rookie driver who isn’t used to racing in Formula 1, it can’t be good for either of the two,” he explained per The Race when asked to share what he made of Cadillac wanting to sign Colton Herta.

The 59-year-old believes that forcing an American driver on the grid would be counterproductive for the Cadillac team. If the driver doesn’t perform, not only does that damage their career but also jeopardizes the future and competitiveness of the team.

Williams faced a similar situation with Logan Sargeant in the past couple of seasons. The American failed to meet expectations and often was also responsible for Williams’ high damage bills. Eventually, he was let go after the 2024 Dutch GP, and Williams finished ninth in the Constructors’ standings.

And despite Steiner offering his advice to the newly-formed Cadillac team, he isn’t particularly pleased with the fact that an 11th team will be entering the grid soon.

Why is Steiner not happy about Cadillac’s entry in 2026?

While at the helm of Haas, Steiner was one of the major opponents to a prospective 11th team on the grid. What began as the Andretti F1 project has now transformed into Cadillac but Steiner’s apprehensions about the project remain the same.

The Italian-American engineer’s biggest concern with the situation is how the prize pool might get diluted for the existing 10 teams on the grid.

“I don’t know all of the details, how they got in there because I was always of the opinion there’s a cake and we need to divide it by 10. If an 11th comes in to eat the cake, all the slices get smaller if the cake doesn’t get bigger,” he explained.

Having said that, the 59-year-old is also aware that the proposal made by Cadillac would have been good enough to change the minds of Formula One Management and the teams, which is why the American team were granted entry to the 2026 grid. “I think they understood that and now they make the cake bigger,” he concluded.