Cadillac didn’t need to show lap times at Silverstone to make its point. It needed a moment — something clean, controlled and unmistakeably “real” after months of talk about an all-new works effort arriving on the 2026 grid. It got that moment on Friday, when Sergio Perez rolled out and became the first driver to lap a Cadillac Formula 1 car.
And then the team did something you don’t often see this early in a project: it pushed the emotion out into the open. Cadillac published Perez’s end-of-run radio message, a neat piece of theatre that also tells you plenty about how the operation wants to present itself in year one.
“Guys, I’m extremely proud of all of you,” Perez said over the radio as the shakedown wrapped up. “This is a very special moment for Cadillac F1 Team. Let’s make history together. Thank you, guys.”
It’s a short clip, but it lands because it’s not trying to be clever. It’s Perez, back in a race cockpit after sitting out the entire 2025 season, sounding like someone who understands exactly what a first day means for a new team: not a victory lap, not a promise — just a line crossed after a lot of unseen work.
Perez later expanded on that feeling in a team statement, describing the day as “emotional” and admitting the first taste of track time had “absolutely fired me up for more”. That line, more than the corporate framing, feels like the key to why Cadillac has gone with this driver pairing. Perez isn’t arriving as a rookie project or a long-term bet. He’s arriving with urgency — the kind you only get when you’ve had to watch a season go by without you.
“Today was really an amazing day,” Perez said. “Everyone should feel incredibly proud to complete our first laps as a team. Each and every person has worked so hard to get to this moment and it was emotional to be part of motorsport history. We can, and should, all enjoy, but it’s absolutely fired me up for more. I just want to get back in and get mileage – this is just the start.”
Valtteri Bottas, watching on as Perez turned those first laps, struck a similar tone — proud, appreciative, but already nudging the narrative on from symbolism to repetition. Bottas is also returning to full-time racing in 2026 after a season as Mercedes reserve, and his comments had that familiar cadence of a driver who knows how quickly a new team’s “firsts” stack up into actual deadlines.
“As a team we made history today with the Cadillac Formula 1 Team car taking to the track for the first time,” Bottas said. “Checo put in the first laps with the car running smoothly. I’m proud of the whole team for getting to this point, which is really impressive. It was special to be part of this moment and witness the joy from the team. Our first day is done and now we push on.”
That last sentence is doing a lot of work. Because as much as a Silverstone shakedown is a milestone, it’s also a reminder of what’s next — and how quickly the calendar stops being romantic.
Cadillac ran the car in an all-black look for the shakedown, a straightforward, no-distractions aesthetic that’s become almost standard for first outings. The team will switch to a special colour scheme for the first official pre-season test in Barcelona next week, with the names of team staff built into the design — a nod to the people who got the car to the line. It’s a nice touch, and also a quiet statement about identity: this isn’t just a badge on a nosecone, it’s a workforce being sold a little pride in public.
Barcelona is where the soft-focus stuff ends. Testing runs from January 26–30 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, five days in total, with each team capped at a maximum of three days of running. For a new operation with two drivers who’ve both spent the past year out of full-time seats, mileage isn’t a luxury — it’s the entire job.
Then comes the next carefully-chosen slice of Americana. Cadillac will reveal its race livery in an advert set to air during the Super Bowl on February 8, before the final two tests in Bahrain. Again, you can read that two ways. On one hand it’s marketing, pure and simple. On the other, it’s Cadillac placing its F1 entry where its biggest audience already lives, rather than asking them to come to Formula 1 first.
But underneath the radio messages and the rollout choreography, the early story of Cadillac’s debut is already taking shape: it’s being framed as a serious sporting project with a deliberately human face. Perez and Bottas are central to that. They’re experienced, they’re known quantities, and they’re both arriving with something to prove — not in a performative way, but in the practical sense that comes from losing a year of racing and wanting it back.
Silverstone was the first lap. Barcelona is the first real test of whether that feeling can be turned into momentum.
