MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) 鈥� From a round of golf with Scottie Scheffler to private dinners around Miami and a splashy event at Carbone, the new Cadillac team was everywhere as it made its
The American-owned team used the , the fourth race of the F1 season, as its homecoming. Its two cars were drenched in a bespoke livery that said 鈥淯SA,鈥� the merchandise tents were packed with fans trying to purchase Cadillac gear and the mood was festive as Americans finally have a team they can embrace.
The trick now for Cadillac is persuading its new fan base to stick with the team as it makes a slow crawl through the F1 season. The results sheet aren’t all that impressive, but the finishing positions aren’t too important right now.
Instead, Cadillac is focused on showing progress made from race to race, and even though Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas finished near the bottom of the running order Sunday, it was still a successful day.
Perez was 16th and Bottas was 18th 鈥� last of the cars still running in a 22-driver field 鈥� but the key statistic was that both cars finished the race for the third consecutive grands prix. Both cars also completed all the laps in the .
鈥淚鈥檓 proud of the team this weekend. The pressure of racing for the first time on home soil, with our first significant upgrade package, has been huge, but the team and drivers have performed well,” said Dan Towriss, CEO of the team. “We鈥檙e showing some real flashes of progress, which just makes us hungry for more.鈥�
The team was just finding some momentum after the Japanese Grand Prix in March when F1 canceled a pair of races in the Middle East because of the . It led to an unexpected five-week break that allowed Cadillac to make significant upgrades to its two cars ahead of Miami.
But all the teams did the same, so it was really a matter of how much improvement a new program could make versus seasoned organizations that have been racing at motorsports’ top level for years.
For team principal Graeme Lowdon, Miami was 鈥渁 positive step forward鈥� based on both cars finishing on both Saturday and Sunday. He was pleased with the pace shown by Perez and Bottas.
鈥淲e also know there are areas we need to refine and improve so there is more to come from us,鈥� Lowdon said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e increased the amount of data that we have access to by a huge amount and we will look to make another step forward in Montreal.鈥�
Towriss is focused more on progress than results for both the F1 team and reserve driver Colton Herta, who is competing in F2 this season to earn the points he needs for a super license to race in the top series. Herta, in a wet race Sunday morning, moved as high as second in the running order before eventually finishing eighth.
鈥淚 don’t know that F2 performance, per se, is really going to be a barometer for F1 readiness,鈥� Towriss said. “It’s really going to be more what is he like in FP1s and SIM time and things like that. We’ll see what his comfort level is. But it’s not like, 鈥極h, this race went well, it鈥檚 looking good,’ or 鈥楾his race didn鈥檛 go well.’
鈥淚t’s not really the barometer we’re looking at. There will be a body of work that we’ll look at to judge his readiness.鈥�
Towriss likened the Cadillac venture to the journey the NASCAR team he co-owns has been on since he bought into Spire Motorsports. The team last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway celebrated its first victory under Towriss majority ownership when Carson Hocevar scored his first Cup Series win. Hocevar followed it with a and won the pole for the .
鈥淭hat upward progression, we talk about it here with Formula 1, you see it at Spire in NASCAR,鈥� Towriss said. “You see it at Andretti (in IndyCar) in terms of the changes that they’re making. It鈥檚 just doing all those small things better than everyone else, and it鈥檚 building culture. It鈥檚 bringing in the right people. And that results happens over time.
鈥淪pire didn鈥檛 get better overnight. You know, there are charts that show this slow progression over the last four years 鈥� four years of building and adding a person, adding that person, changing this, this process and building. And there鈥檚 suddenly that breakthrough. But there are a lot of things along the way, it wasn鈥檛 flat and then jumped up overnight. It鈥檚 really been this slow progression over many years to earn that progress.鈥�
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