Cadillac drops split F1 livery after fan response

Cadillac has scrapped the split black-and-white livery it launched in its Super Bowl debut, with team principal Graeme Lowdon confirming the team’s permanent base scheme is now a mostly white design inspired by the fan-favorite Miami Grand Prix look and running again at the Belgian Grand Prix.

The move ends a visual identity Cadillac had pushed hard at the start of its Formula 1 entry. When the team unveiled its first car in February, it used an asymmetric design with one side predominantly white and the other mostly black on the machine later raced by Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas. Lowdon said that was intended as “just another way of showing that the team wants to approach Formula 1 a little bit differently.”

Cadillac kept that original design “for a while,” but Lowdon said the turning point came after Miami in May, when the team ran an American-themed stars-and-stripes livery for its first home race. “We then ran a livery in Miami, which was really well received by the fans, and we took account of that,” he said. “The livery we have now is actually quite similar to that Miami livery.”

The revised standard look first appeared at the Austrian Grand Prix before Cadillac switched again at Silverstone for a separate Fourth of July design that also marked 250 years since the declaration of American independence. The mostly white base livery returned at Spa-Francorchamps, confirming that the earlier split concept is no longer the team’s default.

Lowdon framed the change as part of a broader philosophy rather than a simple styling decision. “It’s never been about just getting here, it’s always been about trying to get here as a team and do what all the other teams do, which is push the boundaries,” he said.

He also tied the livery switch to Cadillac’s aggressive development rate, saying the team is “pretty high up there on the count of upgrades that we’ve brought to the car.” That makes the new paint scheme part of a wider pattern at Cadillac, with the MAC-26 seen at Spa reported to be substantially different from the more basic car the team launched in Australia.