Cadillac Launched Its F1 Team During the Super Bowl With a JFK Speech and a Lunar Landscape

On February 8, 2026, during Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Cadillac did something that no Formula 1 team has ever attempted. They launched their debut livery to a national television audience of 120 million people during the most-watched broadcast in American media. The commercial depicted the Cadillac MAC-26 being assembled on a lunar landscape, set to excerpts from John F. Kennedy’s 1962 “We choose to go to the Moon” speech at Rice University. A parallel activation in Times Square showcased a full-scale replica of the car for thousands of pedestrians passing through the crossroads of the world.

The livery itself: a striking asymmetrical black-and-white scheme that looked like nothing else on any grid in any racing series. The boldness of the design matched the boldness of the launch strategy. First impressions are a one-time opportunity, and Cadillac used theirs to reach more American eyeballs in a single evening than most F1 teams accumulate across an entire season of racing.

The Technical Architecture

The Cadillac F1 team operates under TWG (The Wonderful Group), the entity formerly known as the Andretti F1 operation. The transition from Andretti branding to Cadillac brought General Motors’ engineering resources, manufacturing infrastructure, marketing budget, and corporate ambition into the Formula 1 equation. The Andretti name provided the racing credibility. The Cadillac name provides the commercial firepower.

For its first three seasons (2026, 2027, and 2028), the team will race with Ferrari power units and gearboxes. This is the standard arrangement for new F1 entrants: use a proven powertrain from an established manufacturer while developing your own. Mercedes supplied engines to multiple customer teams for years. Ferrari currently supplies Haas and has supplied Alfa Romeo (now Sauber) and others. The customer engine model gives new teams competitive hardware from day one while they build internal capabilities.

The long-term play is more significant. General Motors is developing a Cadillac-branded engine at facilities in the United States for introduction in 2029. When that engine arrives, Cadillac will become the first American manufacturer to supply an F1 power unit in the modern hybrid era. The engines used in F1 from 2026 onward are 1.6-liter V6 turbo-hybrids with significantly increased electrical power delivery compared to the previous generation. Building one from scratch requires capabilities in internal combustion engineering, battery technology, energy recovery systems, and power electronics. GM has those capabilities across its existing automotive and motorsport programs, but applying them to F1’s specific regulatory and performance requirements is a multi-year engineering project.

The Moon Speech

Using JFK’s moon speech for the launch commercial was on-the-nose in a way that could have backfired. The speech is one of the most referenced pieces of American political oratory, and its application to a car company entering a European racing series risks feeling grandiose rather than aspirational. But the execution worked because the commercial didn’t try to be subtle. The lunar landscape, the car being assembled piece by piece against a black sky, and Kennedy’s voice saying “We choose to go to the Moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard” leaned so far into the ambition that it looped back around to sincerity.

The subtext was clear: GM entering Formula 1 is an American engineering challenge that the company is framing as a national ambition, not just a corporate strategy. Whether that framing holds up over the first few seasons of competitive racing (where results will inevitably be mixed, as they are for every new team) will determine whether the moon metaphor ages as aspirational or ironic.

Why This Matters for F1 in America

American interest in Formula 1 has been building since Liberty Media acquired the sport in 2017. The Netflix series Drive to Survive brought millions of new viewers. The Austin, Miami, and Las Vegas races created domestic events that drew enormous crowds. But manufacturer involvement has lagged behind the audience growth. Until Cadillac’s entry, no American manufacturer had committed to F1 as a constructor or engine supplier in the modern era.

GM’s entry through Cadillac signals that the investment thesis for American involvement in F1 has shifted from speculative to strategic. The Super Bowl launch, the Times Square activation, the JFK speech, and the asymmetrical black-and-white livery are all calibrated for the American market first and the global F1 audience second. That ordering is deliberate. Cadillac is betting that F1’s American audience is large enough and engaged enough to justify the cost of a factory team, and that the brand’s association with F1 will enhance its positioning in the luxury automotive market where Ferrari, Mercedes, and Aston Martin already benefit from their racing programs.

The 2026 season will test that thesis. The MAC-26 will line up on the grid alongside 19 other cars, and the results will speak for themselves regardless of how impressive the Super Bowl ad was. Formula 1 is the most unforgiving stage in motorsport. The moon speech was the opening act. The racing is the show.