Cadillac's first home race in Formula 1 came wrapped in stars and stripes, with the American outfit unveiling a special black, white and silver livery splashed with US flag motifs for last weekend's Miami Grand Prix. The visual was loud. The message from team principal Graeme Lowdon was anything but.
The new entry's fourth race weekend ended with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez once again outside the points, but with both cars finishing for the third grand prix in a row - a small, important streak for a team that built its operation from scratch over the last 18 months. Lowdon used Miami to push back against the idea that home advantage should mean a leap up the order.
"It's still so early days," Lowdon said. "I know I keep saying it, but we've only done three of these things [races]."
He was equally direct when asked whether Miami had specific result targets attached to it.
"No, still very much looking at progress," he said. "The key thing now is just how do we keep improving both in terms of design, production, operation, and executing the race weekend."
The livery itself was a deliberate piece of marketing for an American manufacturer making its grand prix debut on US soil. Cadillac branding was paired with TWG, Tenneco, Jim Beam and Core Scientific logos against a stylised stars-and-stripes flow across the sidepod and engine cover. Fans and media had clamoured for a permanent move in this direction after early images leaked, but Lowdon's focus all weekend was operational.
"Pit stops, the bulk of our pit stops have actually been not under pressure," Lowdon said, "but if you really mess it up it would make a big difference."
Qualifying threw up another wrinkle. Lowdon revealed that Perez had been running with one piece of Cadillac's new aerodynamic package missing from his car, with the team forced to ration upgrade parts between the two drivers.
"Checo was missing one part that may have added a little bit, but this will be rectified in rotation, agreed between the drivers and team," Lowdon explained.
Despite the missing part, Perez out-qualified Bottas by close to eight tenths in sprint qualifying, and Lowdon believed the Mexican was on for the SQ2 cut before circumstances intervened.
"He could potentially have made it to SQ2 had he got a second run," Lowdon said, after a weighbridge visit cost Perez a final lap. "A missed opportunity, but we will learn from it."
Perez himself was more resigned than disappointed.
"I was very happy with my lap in sprint quali, and the pace is promising, but sadly, I only had the one run," he said.
The headline image of Cadillac's Miami weekend will be that black-and-silver American flag wrap. The lasting story, in Lowdon's hands, is a slower one - both cars to the chequered flag, a missing part identified, a pit-stop discipline being built, and a conscious refusal to overpromise. The flashy debut belongs to the marketing team. The race team is still measuring everything in tenths.
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*Originally published on [Formula One News](https://newsformula.one/article/cadillac-stars-stripes-miami-livery-lowdon-perez-missing-part-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
