Cadillac explain why they decided on a split black-and-white livery for their F1 debut

Cadillac made headlines on Sunday night when the F1 newcomers showcased their 2026 livery with simultaneous launches at Times Square and around coverage of the Super Bowl.

As the team’s debut season edges ever closer, Cadillac combined a presentation at the famous New York spot with a television advert during the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL) – this year held in Santa Clara, California.

It was the latest step in a momentous journey for the American-led operation, whose CEO Dan Towriss took a moment to reflect while speaking to selected media, including F1.com, in the hours after the launch.

“It was a tremendous event for us last night, to be able to show the car to the world, and to launch this team,” he commented.

“I think for us, as a team, it’s a moment to reflect on all the hard work that’s been done to get to this point, but I think also launching the livery, our racing livery, is an inflection point. Now, it’s all about racing. We’ve spent a lot of time in the press talking about the entry process and building a team from scratch, but now, it’s all about racing.

“Even as we speak, the car is on track doing promotional days in Bahrain. Again, a very momentous day for us, and it was great to go right from the livery launch to the car being on track just a few hours later.”

As well as explaining what went into the dual launch, Towriss opened up on why Cadillac ended up with their split black-and-white livery design.

“We see real meaning in the colours,” he stressed. “For us, black represents this bold attitude of the car. I think when you see the black side it looks a little mean, and it has some attitude. Then white, which is the actual racing colour of America… We wanted to have white on the car. It’s fresh, it’s clean, it’s optimistic. It’s really the balance of those two.

“The livery is the identity of the team, and so this represents us. Some people look to the Cadillac badge, and see the red, yellow and blue, but when you get into high performance, Cadillac goes monochromatic in their badging. It’s an element of the brand that we wanted to lean into for F1, the pinnacle of motorsport.”

Cadillac will be back in action at the Bahrain International Circuit on Wednesday, when the first of two official pre-season tests gets under way.