05/01/26 02:04:00
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05/01 14:02 CDT Cadillac's stars-and-stripes Miami debut as the new F1 team
races on US soil
Cadillac's stars-and-stripes Miami debut as the new F1 team races on US soil
By JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) --- It was less than 14 months ago that Cadillac's
frustrating push to enter Formula 1 finally came to an end and the team was
approved to compete in the global motorsports series.
The team has completed three races already but its biggest debut comes this
weekend, on American soil, at the Miami Grand Prix. Cadillac F1 markets itself
as the only true American team in the European-dominated series --- Haas F1 is
owned by California businessman Gene Haas --- and represents the American dream.
The effort to enter F1 began with Michael Andretti, son of motorsports' most
famous naturalized U.S. citizen, and its 2026 car is named after Mario
Andretti. And for its first race in North America, Cadillac debuted a special
livery presented by the team's primary partner, TWG AI.
The design integrates a stars and stripes motif in Cadillac's signature black
and white color scheme, includes 50 stars on the front of the car and "USA" is
emblazoned on the rear wing. There is also a splash of red inside the wheels to
get red, white and blue on the car.
"Racing at home for the first time is a major milestone for this team and
something we've been looking forward to for a long time," said Dan Towriss, CEO
of the team and a part-time Fort Lauderdale resident. "There's a lot of pride
in representing the United States as the American team, especially in front of
our home fans. We understand what that means and we're focused on showing up
and delivering for them."
Cadillac fields cars for Valtteri Bottas of Finland and Sergio Perez of Mexico,
two veterans who have won in F1 for other teams. Through the first three races
their best performance was Bottas finishing 13th and Perez 15th in the second
round. Expected to be the worst performing team out of 11 based solely on this
being its maiden year, Cadillac heads into Sunday's race ranked 10th ahead of
Aston Martin in the constructors' standings.
Colton Herta, who left the Andretti Global IndyCar team to race in F2 this
season to earn the super license needed to compete in F1, is expected to
eventually move into one of the Cadillac seats. The Californian was fastest in
Friday's practice for the junior series and the plan now would eventually make
him the only American driver on the F1 grid.
An unexpected five-week layoff because of the war in Iran forced F1 to cancel
two events scheduled in the Middle East, and Cadillac used that time to put
together "a fairly substantial upgrade package" for Miami.
"It's spread over different parts of the car so probably the main area is the
floor, but there are also changes on front and rear brakes, front wing as
well," team principal Graeme ?Lowdon said. "It's a mixture of aero and a bit of
weight saving as well. It's reasonably sizeable. We'll be watching the
performance of the upgrade with great interest because there's an awful lot
that we need to verify that other teams will be well down the route of doing."
Most of the teams came to Miami with upgrades, but because Cadillac is so new,
it might not have had the bandwidth to make so many changes if not for the
break.
"I hope that we can make a bigger step than some other teams," Bottas said.
"Because we should be able to do that in theory from where we started. So
that's the goal. In the first three races I felt like every ?race was getting
smoother and smoother, less and less issues."
Lowdon, however, acknowledged that Cadillac is still in its teething phase as
it competes against long tenured teams.
"We're racing against teams that have done literally thousands of grand prixs,"
Lowdon said. "If there is a thing such as team muscle memory how you operate,
other teams have that advantage. Everything for us is new."
That includes the attention the team is receiving.
Interest and popularity in Cadillac began even before one of its cars hit the
track. Jim Campbell, vice president of performance and motorsports commercial
operations, said General Motors CEO Mary Barra and President Mark Reuss will be
in Miami all weekend, alongside dealers, customers and invited guests.
"It's our fourth race, but it's our first time to race our Cadillac F1 on
American soil, it's super special," Campbell said. "We've been looking forward
to this day. We have been here the last three years, really trying to learn
about the F1 platform and so to be here now racing is super exciting, as
opposed to being here observing."
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
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