The first thing Cadillac shows us is not speed. It is restraint.
At the Barcelona Shakedown later this month, the team will roll out its debut Formula 1 car wearing a monochrome testing livery. Gloss and matte surfaces fold into each other. Geometry breaks up the bodywork. A large Cadillac crest sits confidently over the rear, both a signature and a screen. It is a familiar F1 language. Hide the aero, reveal the intent.
This is not yet the car Cadillac wants the world to remember. That moment is reserved for February 8, revealed during the Super Bowl, where the race livery will arrive in front of an audience far beyond the paddock. Barcelona is for engineers, not applause.
Look closer and the testing livery carries a quieter message. Embedded within the design are the names of the team’s founding members from the United States and the UK. It reads less like branding and more like provenance. A reminder that this project is being built across continents, with American confidence, British racecraft, and Italian machinery underneath via Ferrari power.
That blend now extends inside the garage as well. Alongside race drivers Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, Cadillac has confirmed Zhou Guanyu as Reserve Driver for its 2026 campaign. It is a measured choice. Zhou brings recent Ferrari systems knowledge, discipline in simulation work, and a reputation for clean, thoughtful execution. Not noise. Signal.
Reserve drivers shape the car long before it ever lines up on a grid. Zhou’s role sits neatly within Cadillac’s early structure. Bottas and Perez provide reference and race experience. Zhou handles the long hours of correlation, feedback, and continuity. In a new team, that quiet labor matters.
Barcelona, then, is not about lap times. It is about alignment. The car will run. The data will flow. The team will watch, listen, and adjust. Cadillac is not trying to shock Formula 1 into attention. It is introducing itself with control.
There will be time for statements later. For now, the shapes are muted, the names are written small, and the message is clear enough. This is a team building its rhythm before it raises its voice.
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