Racing
© Spencer
Cadillac will debut its first major upgrade package on the MAC-26 at this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, with Valtteri Bottas saying the main gain should be “more downforce in all speed ranges” as the new Formula 1 team tries to move closer to the midfield.
The package is the first big technical step of Cadillac’s season and arrives at its first home race with the team still running at the back of the field. Cadillac has generally had the edge over Aston Martin in the opening rounds, but it has lacked pace against the cars ahead and sits 10th in the constructors’ championship. Its best result so far is Bottas’s 13th place in China.
Graeme Lowdon, Cadillac team principal, described the Miami update as a “fairly substantial upgrade package” spread across several areas of the car. The main focus is the floor, but the team has also changed the front and rear brake drums or ducts, the front wing and a number of smaller parts across the car. Lowdon said the package is “a mixture of aero and a bit of weight saving.”
Bottas made clear where Cadillac expects the real lap-time gain to come from. “The biggest part of this upgrade simply consists of more downforce in all speed ranges,” he said. “That is still the biggest time gain we will achieve. I mean, the weight reduction certainly helps, but it is not as significant as the deficit we had in terms of aerodynamics.”
That makes Miami an immediate check on whether Cadillac can use its low starting point to close the gap more quickly than some of its rivals. Bottas said the team believes it should have more development headroom than others. “I hope that we can make a bigger step than some other teams because we should be able to do that in theory from where we started,” he said. “So that’s the goal, and by tomorrow evening we will roughly know where we stand.”
Lowdon was careful to frame that test in relative terms. “We don’t know what the others are doing,” he said. “The only thing that makes a difference is that relative delta. But we are reasonably hopeful.” With other teams also expected to bring upgrades to Miami, Cadillac’s progress will matter only if it changes where the car sits in the order.
The significance of the package goes beyond pure performance. For a new entrant still building its F1 operation, getting a substantial update to the track at the fourth race is also a test of whether its wider development and production system is functioning. Lowdon called that “really encouraging” and said the visible parts on the car reflect work happening across Cadillac’s different sites.
“It’s not just about getting a race team operating,” Lowdon said. “It’s about getting the manufacturing working, all the processes and procedures. Everything from procurement to in-house manufacture. All of these systems are completely brand new.” He added that Cadillac would watch the upgrade “with great interest, because there’s a lot we need to verify that other teams will already be well down the route of doing.”
Miami’s Sprint format will make that evaluation more difficult. Cadillac has only one practice session before sprint qualifying on Friday afternoon, although that session has been extended by 30 minutes. Lowdon admitted that introducing a large package in those conditions is “never ideal” because there is so little time to analyze it, but said the extra running “should be enough.”
That leaves Cadillac heading into the weekend with one clear question hanging over its first major upgrade: not just whether the MAC-26 is faster, but whether the team can finally turn its aerodynamic fix into a meaningful step toward the midfield.