By Noah Guttman
Cadillac’s arrival to the F1 grid is a sign of things past and things to come for the American F1 fandom
During the fourth quarter of last Sunday’s Super Bowl, played between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots, Cadillac unveiled the livery for their first-ever Formula One entry.
A mix of black and white colours, in addition to the Cadillac branding, made up much of the team’s first car. Actor Terry Crews was on hand to unveil the car in a New York City-based event, while the commercial itself featured the car coming together to the sound of former President John F. Kennedy’s “We choose to go to the moon” speech.
Though the Formula One fandom in the United States has grown significantly over the past decade, it’s only now with Cadillac’s arrival that a “giant leap” can be perceived.
Yes, Haas is owned by American Gene Haas but it also shares three bases of operations in the United States, England, and Italy. The Miami, United States, and Las Vegas Grand Prix’ serve as the team’s de facto home races, attracting millions of fans annually, and the arrival of Ayao Komatsu as team principal and Toyota as a sponsor technically makes Japan a fourth home base for Haas.
We’ve also seen streaming make up part of the acceleration of the Formula One fandom in America. Netflix’s docuseries Formula One: Drive to Survive, which is entering its eighth season and offers behind-the-scenes access to the Formula One paddock in line with key events, can be seen as the main accelerator of the United States’ Formula One fanbase. In 2022, a poll found that 53% of American Formula One fans said that Drive to Survive was the reason they got into the series, with many citing the series’ decision to prioritize stories and narratives in an effort to grab fans’ attention.
And with Cadillac set to arrive in just a few weeks time, the American fanbase could receive a big boost. The team already has an American driver – Colton Herta – in its pipeline, potentially giving American fans a hometown hero to root for in the coming years. And the team’s livery unveiling does play on the idea of patriotism to a certain extent, something that the team’s marketing has done to modest success.
It will be interesting to see how Cadillac performs in terms of merch sales, social media engagement, and in terms of their ability to draw fans at home races. Cadillac’s official Instagram page already has 3.4 million followers, which is just about 100,000 followers shy of their American counterparts in Haas and fellow F1 arrivals Audi; Cadillac is also 400,000 followers shy of Racing Bulls. Even then, Alpine is 1.3 million followers ahead of Cadillac, while the sixth bottom-half team – Aston Martin – is almost two million followers ahead of the American arrivals.
With just over two weeks left until Cadillac makes their competitive debut in Australia, the team has a base of support of sorts behind them – both historical and current. And if the team performs well this year and taps further into their American roots via marketing, one should have no doubt that Cadillac will be a player on the Formula One grid for years to come.
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