Marco Rossi · F1 Correspondent
In Austin, Cadillac runs a cowboy-themed look, brings new updates and hands Colton Herta the cockpit for one session at his home race.
At the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, the Cadillac Formula 1 Team heads into the second home race of its 2026 debut season with three talking points at once: a special livery designed for Texas, technical updates to the MAC-26 and an outing for test driver Colton Herta in first practice, where he takes over the car of race driver Sergio Pérez.
A new coat for Texas
For the Austin weekend, Cadillac has given its MAC-26 a special design that clearly draws on the cowboy style of the race's Texan home. It is a small nod to the venue, but also a signal: the young team, still in its debut season, is reaching out to the American public and using its second home race of the year to raise its profile.
The fact that the team is already running its third special livery of its debut season, after Miami in May and Silverstone in July, also says something about Cadillac's ambitions. Anyone who wants to establish themselves in Formula 1 needs more than pace on track. They also need a recognisable identity among the fans, and Austin is the right stage for that.
Small steps on the floor
Alongside the new look, Cadillac has also moved forward technically. According to team principal Marcin Budkowski, the team is bringing minor floor updates and changes to the cooling system to Texas. Both are aimed less at a big jump in performance than at gathering data systematically on a track whose quick changes of direction and long climb to Turn 1 put heavy demands on aerodynamics and cooling.
For a debut team like Cadillac, every session with a new part on the car is a chance to compare its own development work with reality on track. What matters is probably less how big the step turns out to be on this one weekend, and more whether the direction of development is confirmed.
Home game for Herta
In first practice on Friday, 23 October, Colton Herta takes the wheel of Sergio Pérez's MAC-26. For the American, who is listed as Cadillac's test driver, it is already his fourth practice session of the season, after outings in Barcelona, Budapest and Monza. Austin, however, is his first chance to sit in a Formula 1 car in his own country.
The venue means a lot to Herta. At the Circuit of The Americas he took his first IndyCar win in 2019, long before a Formula 1 career was even on the horizon. That he now runs his first FP1 on home soil at exactly that track gives the outing a personal touch that goes beyond pure sport.
After the session, the car goes back to Sergio Pérez, who completes the rest of the weekend alongside Valtteri Bottas. For Cadillac, the Austin appearance is above all one thing: a building block in its debut season, where the special livery, the updates and Herta's outing together show how a new team works on visibility and substance at the same time. How reliable the data gathered really is will probably only become clear in the coming races, when the updates have to hold up under race conditions.
