Cadillac’s big, glossy arrival on the sport’s loudest stage was always going to come with a bit of theatre. What the new Formula 1 outfit probably didn’t budget for was courtroom theatre arriving ahead of the commercial itself.
Just hours before Cadillac’s Super Bowl spot aired, a report emerged that filmmaker Michael Bay is suing the team for $1.5 million, alleging his ideas and work were used without payment in the build-up to the ad that doubled as Cadillac’s first major public reveal of its 2026 F1 car, the XXX.
According to the report, Bay’s lawsuit claims Cadillac “apparently stolen Bay’s ideas and work for the commercial without paying for them”, and goes further, suggesting the team “planned all along to rip him off”. The filing paints a familiar Hollywood grievance: a creator is courted for something high-profile, does early heavy lifting at pace, and then gets a short message saying the project is moving on without them — only to see echoes of their pitch in what eventually gets made.
Bay’s side says he and his team were working “around the clock” to prepare for the production, with Bay personally pulling an all-nighter to pull together concepts for the project. He was then informed by text that Cadillac was going in “a different direction”.
The lawsuit reportedly points to specific visual ideas Bay says he proposed — including “shimmering” elements and “highly reflective gold chrome” finishes — which he later noticed in promotional materials connected to the ad. The $1.5 million figure is described as representing Bay’s standard director fee plus producer fees for his team.
Cadillac, for its part, is flatly denying any wrongdoing and framing the contact with Bay as exploratory rather than foundational.
“Michael Bay is a cinematic genius and we talked with him about directing our Superbowl ad,” a Cadillac Formula 1 Team spokesperson said. “But after two meetings, it became clear he couldn’t meet our timeline, and there ultimately wasn’t a path forward.
“It’s unclear why he’s bringing this claim, since the concept and creative were already developed and we were only exploring him as a director. It’s also unusual to raise this now, given the ad hasn’t even been released.
“We’re confident this will be resolved appropriately. Even so, we still admire Michael Bay’s creative brilliance and would welcome the opportunity to work together in the future.”
Whatever the legal merits — and those details will now do what they always do: crawl through contracts, emails, drafts and timelines — the timing is brutal. Cadillac’s commercial was meant to be a clean statement: a new F1 entrant launching in unapologetically American style, with the kind of cultural reach most teams can only dream of. Instead, the first conversation many casual fans will have about the ad is whether it’s going to end up dissected by lawyers as well as by marketing analysts and armchair art directors.
For F1 diehards, it’s another reminder that the championship’s expansion into mainstream US sport and entertainment isn’t just about new races and bigger paddocks. It’s about new kinds of scrutiny, too. The Super Bowl isn’t simply a slot on a broadcast schedule; it’s one of the most litigated, most branded, most politically sensitive media environments on the planet. When you plant your flag there, you’re inviting a different class of attention — and a different class of problem.
It also lands at an awkward moment for a team that hasn’t even turned a competitive lap in anger. Cadillac’s on-track homework for 2026 is already mountainous. Now it’s being asked to manage a public dispute with one of the most recognisable names in blockbuster cinema, at the exact moment it’s trying to introduce itself to the widest possible audience.
There’s a cold irony in that, too. Cadillac’s spokesperson leant hard on admiration for Bay’s “creative brilliance” while insisting the team had already developed the “concept and creative” and was simply exploring him as a director. That line may play fine in a press statement, but in a lawsuit shaped around alleged idea appropriation, it’s exactly the kind of nuance that gets pulled apart phrase by phrase.
For now, Cadillac has achieved what every new entrant craves: it’s got people talking. It just might not be the talking it wanted on the morning after its biggest marketing swing.
The ad has already done its job in one respect — it’s forced the sport to look at Cadillac as a real participant in the 2026 grid conversation rather than a future promise. But with Bay’s claim now in the open, Cadillac’s debut campaign comes with an asterisk that won’t disappear until the dispute is resolved “appropriately”, as the team puts it.
And in a championship where narratives are as valuable as lap time, Cadillac’s first headline of the week isn’t about its car. It’s about who, exactly, can claim ownership of the shine.
