General Motors' Cadillac brand invested up to $20 million in a Super Bowl advertisement to unveil its Formula 1 livery, aiming to capture a massive audience for its 2026 entry. The ad featured a dramatic nod to John F. Kennedy's moon speech, signaling the start of Cadillac's F1 mission. Team CEO Dan Towriss confirmed the high cost while detailing the black-and-white design's significance.
Cadillac made a bold statement with its Formula 1 debut preparations, spending up to $20 million on a one-minute Super Bowl slot to reveal its new livery. As suggested by team CEO Dan Towriss, the cost aligns with estimates of $10 million per 30 seconds. The advertisement incorporated footage from United States President John F. Kennedy's 1962 "We choose to go to the Moon" speech, overlaid with Cadillac's F1 preparations and the tagline "The mission begins." This approach targeted a vast home-market audience to boost awareness of Cadillac's F1 bid ahead of its 2026 grid entry.
The team's first F1 car had already undergone a shakedown in late January at Barcelona, sporting a temporary testing livery. General Motors is committing significant resources to the project, including multiple bases in the United States and a facility at Silverstone in the UK, to ensure competitiveness from the outset. Despite Formula 1's cost-cap regulations, Towriss anticipates financial losses in 2026 and 2027. "It's probably a couple of years before on an operating basis the team would be in the black or breaking even on a cash basis," he said. He added that the team is progressing ahead of initial projections for entering the sport.
Sponsorship details are under close watch, with no major partners yet announced for the unnamed car. However, Towriss emphasized that the TWG AI logo on the sidepods represents a genuine, arm's-length paying agreement, not internal branding. "It's a paying agreement. This isn't a value-in-kind agreement, so it's cashed into the team from that standpoint," he clarified.
The livery's black-and-white scheme, a two-sided design, drew mixed reactions, with some fans missing the vibrant colors from Cadillac's 2024 Le Mans entry. Towriss explained the choice: "Black represents this bold attitude of the car... it looks a little mean, it has some attitude. And then white, which is the actual racing colour of America... fresh, clean, optimistic." He noted it draws from Cadillac's high-performance V-Series monochromatic badging, fitting for F1's pinnacle status.
The design debuted on track during a filming day on Monday at Bahrain International Circuit, where drivers Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas shared driving duties. The car covered up to 200 kilometers on Pirelli demonstration tires, following three days of running in Barcelona. This session precedes the pre-season test from February 11-13, involving all F1 teams.
