{"id":466834,"date":"2026-02-10T23:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/466834\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T23:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:41:09","slug":"cadillacs-first-f1-livery-and-legal-squabbles-plus-antonelli-uninjured-in-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/466834\/","title":{"rendered":"Cadillac\u2019s first F1 livery and legal squabbles. Plus: Antonelli uninjured in crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s F1 newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox twice a week during the season and weekly in the offseason.<\/p>\n

Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today we can acknowledge that Formula 1 launch season is over, preseason is still going with the second test starting tomorrow and the actual\u00a0season\u00a0of racing is still to come.<\/p>\n

Classic, complicated, F1.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Alex, and Madeline Coleman will be along later.<\/p>\n

Super Bowl Splash: Cadillac reveals livery after ad lawsuit filed<\/p>\n

Given Cadillac spent around $7 million-8 million to reveal its first F1 livery during Super Bowl LX \u2014 along with a joint reveal of the color scheme on a show car positioned in New York\u2019s Times Square \u2014 there was plenty to anticipate from the team on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for F1\u2019s newest team, its TV commercial slot came in the fourth quarter of a game that was long over, thanks to a terrorizing Seahawks defense and lack of Patriots offense.<\/p>\n

Anyway \u2026 Cadillac delivered a slick, if complex, commercial.\u00a0One that split both\u00a0actual advertisement critics<\/a>\u00a0and commenters on Madeline\u2019s story about the reveal (see some of the comments below).<\/p>\n

There was a lot to unpack, starting with a story that actually broke ahead of the commercial airing: Hollywood director\u00a0Michael Bay is suing Cadillac for $1.5 million<\/a>. The complaint alleges team CEO\u00a0Dan Towriss and his team \u201chave apparently stolen Bay\u2019s ideas and work for the commercial, without paying for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

That alone is staggering.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s how Cadillac\u2019s asymmetric livery \u2014 it\u2019s mostly black on one side of the car and white on the other \u2014 gets entangled in F1\u2019s often baffling rules.\u00a0Specifically, Article A2.3.4.e of Section A of F1\u2019s 2026 ruleset.<\/p>\n

This rule states: \u201cLiveries may not protrude beyond the bodywork of the F1 car and must be substantially similar on both sides of the F1 car.\u201d
\nOfficially, that rule has existed since 1998 to force teams to run two cars in the same color scheme, regardless of sponsorship deals they may agree to, unlike in NASCAR or IndyCar. Unofficially, that rule had existed for a decade beforehand.
\nThere had been instances of teams running different liveries across cars going even further back in F1 history \u2014 such as McLaren at 1984 Portuguese Grand Prix, or Tyrrell for much of that year.
\nBut, generally, team uniformity was the norm. At the end of the last century, F1\u2019s main stakeholders really wanted cars to look the same to help build brands and aid spectators in viewing cars flashing by at 200 mph.<\/p>\n

Enter British American Racing.<\/p>\n

The team, which today competes as Mercedes,\u00a0was most commonly known as its acronym BAR for the seven F1 seasons it completed before selling up to Honda. The team later became Brawn GP and then Mercedes in 2010.
\nUnlike Cadillac\u2019s approach of under-promising in the hope of over-delivering on track, BAR was bombastic about its chances in its debut F1 season in 1999 (it ultimately scored no points that year).
\nIn a bid to promote two of the cigarette brands under team owner British American Tobacco, BAR wanted its first F1 design to have two different liveries for drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta.<\/p>\n

But the FIA said this contravened the new late-1998 rule addition.\u00a0And things got ugly.<\/p>\n

BAR boss Craig Pollock argued this rule restricted his team\u2019s commercial work and a complaint was even filed with the European Commission executive branch.
\nThis followed the FIA ruling BAR couldn\u2019t run different liveries and the team presenting a compromise of one livery that split the two liveries over one car. (More classic F1 complexity.)
\nEventually, both sides settled their dispute and BAR was not banned from competing in any races in 1999. That\u2019s how far things could\u2019ve gone.<\/p>\n

The rules on F1 liveries have barely changed since\u00a0\u2014 bar small updates such as the requirement to add larger driver numbers to the cars, again to aid spectator viewing, which came in 2017.\u00a0And the issue hasn\u2019t arisen again, until now.<\/p>\n

In a launch season where Red Bull\u2019s livery is harking back to its first F1 golden age of the early 2010s and the new cars overall look like the machines that competed in the 2000s, Cadillac\u2019s color choice just evoked even more F1 memories.<\/p>\n

The team sought clarification on whether it could have an asymmetric livery, and this was\u00a0apparently forthcoming<\/a>\u00a0from the FIA.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As these readers\u2019 comments show, people\u00a0care\u00a0how F1 cars look, even the basic elements, such as paint. (Note: Cars are mostly colored in vinyl wrapping these days, but let\u2019s not introduce MORE complexity \u2026) And the largely black color schemes of recent years used to save weight annoyed many fans.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of those classic over-a-beverage topics. And we\u2019re going to be delving even further into it in the coming days, when Luke Smith and Madeline rank all 11 2026 liveries now that they\u2019re all out in the open.<\/p>\n

For me, the livery looks \u2026 good. Solid, even.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The intriguing asymmetry saves it from a negative adjective, and I really like white F1 cars (the Racing Bulls design since 2025 has topped the class for me). But I do wish Cadillac went a bit bolder.<\/p>\n

The team stayed in the news today as it announced Lewis Hamilton\u2019s long-time manager Marc Hynes as its\u00a0chief racing officer<\/a>. Hynes also has a\u00a0long history<\/a>\u00a0with Cadillac team principal Graeme Lowdon.<\/p>\n

Now over to Madeline for an update on Cadillac\u2019s plans to build its own F1 engine.<\/p>\n

Inside the Paddock with Madeline Coleman: Cadillac\u2019s own engine still 3 years away<\/p>\n

Cadillac\u2019s goal for introducing its own F1 engine is still 2029, Towriss said yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project\u2019s ahead of schedule, actually,\u201d he said. \u201cAs of right now, we\u2019re slated to bring the Cadillac power unit online to compete in 2029, and there\u2019s some developing power unit regulations as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re keeping a close eye on all of that. But in terms of this current reg set, we\u2019re on schedule to have a power unit for 2029.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cadillac will use a customer Ferrari engine for its first three F1 seasons, but last spring, the FIA approved Performance Power Units to be an engine supplier starting in 2029. The company was founded by TWG Motorsports and General Motors.<\/p>\n

F1\u2019s next engine regulation rule change is slated to occur in 2031, but there have been conversations about whether to move that up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really following the conversation on the regs closely,\u201d Towriss said. \u201cIt\u2019s possible that they don\u2019t change before 2031. Regardless of the funding, I think it\u2019s important that we see a Cadillac power unit on the grid as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really the main focus, from my standpoint. If there are ways to speed it up, we will. But right now, the focus is still 2029.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back to you, Alex.<\/p>\n

Antonelli\u2019s Crash: Italian not expected to miss testing time<\/p>\n

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli was involved in a road car crash near his home in San Marino on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old \u2014 just 13 months from obtaining his road license ahead of his F1 debut with Mercedes in 2025 \u2014 crashed on the freeway near Serravalle, San Marino.<\/p>\n

No other vehicles were involved, and Antonelli is still expected to join George Russell for the three days of testing starting in Bahrain tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport reported that law enforcement is investigating the cause and details of the incident, which it said involved Antonelli\u2019s extremely long-named Mercedes-AMG GT 63 Pro 4Matic+ Motorsport Collectors Edition super car.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s\u00a0all we know so far<\/a>, including an update on the engine argument currently involving Antonelli\u2019s Mercedes team.\u00a0If it wins that debate, it seems set for a strong 2026 season, if not\u00a0more pain<\/a>\u00a0could be on the way \u2014 as Luke\u00a0explained here<\/a>\u00a0last week.<\/p>\n

Outside the points<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf4a Madeline has\u00a0McLaren\u2019s 2026 livery reveal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 Madeline also broke the news that 16-year-old American driver\u00a0Payton Westcott will represent Mercedes<\/a>\u00a0in F1 Academy this year.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Madeline also also covered Aston Martin finally\u00a0presenting its 2026 F1 car<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2705 With that, F1\u2019s 2026 launch season concluded. The second test starts tomorrow and runs until Friday, with the third\u00a0following next week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love Prime Tire? Check out The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-466834","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}