MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — It was less than 14 months ago that Cadillac’s often frustrating push to enter Formula 1 finally came to an end and the team was approved to compete in the global open-wheel series.
The American team has completed three races already, but this weekend will mark the biggest moment yet with its debut on American soil at the Miami Grand Prix. Cadillac F1 markets itself as the only true American team in the European-dominated series — although Haas F1 is owned by California businessman Gene Haas — and represents the American dream.
The effort to enter F1 began with Michael Andretti, the 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 paint scheme 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 has “USA” 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 South Florida resident in nearby Fort Lauderdale. “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 veteran drivers who have won F1 races for other teams over the years. Through the first three races for Cadillac F1, their best performance was in the second one, with Bottas finishing 13th and Perez 15th at the Chinese Grand Prix on March 15 in Shanghai. Expected to be the worst performing team out of 11 based solely on this being its maiden year, Cadillac heads into Sunday’s race 10th in the constructors’ standings, ahead of Aston Martin.
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 (aerodynamics) 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 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 prix,” Lowdon said. “If there is a thing such as team muscle memory (in) 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.”
Later Friday, Perez qualified 19th and Bottas 20th for Saturday’s sprint race.
Reigning F1 champion Lando Norris of McLaran earned the pole position, beating current series points leader Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was third, only 0.017 second behind Antonelli, ahead of the second sprint race of the season.
Friday was the first time drivers were able to test changes made by FIA, the sanctioning body for the series, during the recent five-week hiatus. The organization implemented changes to the regulations after drivers heavily criticized how the electrical battery power has changed the cars and competition.
“It was great,” Norris said. “Perfect result for us, nice way to reward the team. We’ve got a lot of new upgrades on the car, so nice to feel some grip again. … I’ve always loved Miami.”
Charles Leclerc of Ferrari was fourth in sprint qualifying, ahead of four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull.