Cadillac’s first “substantial” F1 upgrade package for the Miami Grand Prix explained

Cadillac will debut its first major Formula 1 upgrade package to this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.

The American outfit has utilised the enforced five-week break created by the cancellation of races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia due to the Iran War by working to improve its MAC-26 car.

The upgrade, which has been described as being “fairly substantial” by Cadillac team principal Graeme Lowdon, features a raft of new parts aimed at improving aerodynamic performance and saving weight.

“We’ve got a fairly substantial upgrade package,” Lowdon told media including Crash.net ahead of Cadillac’s first home grand prix in Miami.

“It’s spread over different parts of the car. Probably the main areas are the floor, but there’s also some changes on front rear brake drums, front wing as well and lots of bits spread all over the car.

“It’s a mixture of aero and a bit of weight saving as well. It’s reasonably sizeable, but of course the problem is we don’t know what everyone else is doing. So the only that makes a difference is that relative delta. But we’re reasonably hopeful.

“It’s never ideal when you have a fairly substantial upgrade package and it’s a sprint weekend, because you don’t have an awful lot of time to analyse it. With the slightly longer FP1 session, there should be enough.”

Cadillac has produced a full set of parts including spares for the event, with Lowdown quick to praise the hard work back at its respective factories.

“It’s tight in some areas. There’s lots of bits to this upgrade, it’s not like a single thing where you make five of them. There’s quite a lot of changes in various areas,” he explained.

“This is our fourth-ever grand prix. Ferrari have done 1,100 and whatever, and even Haas have done 200 and something, being a newer entry on the grid.

“So to bring a fairly substantial upgrade is really encouraging, because what you see at the track is the result from that happening back at our multiple locations elsewhere.

“It’s not just about getting a race team operating, it’s about getting the manufacturing working, all the processes and procedures. Everything from procurement to in-house manufacture. All of these systems are completely brand new.

“So we’ll be watching the performance of the upgrade with great interest, because there’s a lot we need to verify that other teams will already be well down the route of doing.”

Cadillac has largely been battling Aston Martin at the back of the grid so far this year and sits 10th in the constructors’ championship, with 13th place for Valtteri Bottas at the Chinese Grand Prix the team’s best recorded finish in its opening three races.

Bottas, a 10-time grand prix winner, hopes the upgrades can help Cadillac make a big step forward in the early competitive order.

“Everything looks good. We’ve got everything here as planned,” Bottas said in response to a question from Crash.net.

"There’s been plenty of time for the team to adjust everything, fine-tune everything. We’re definitely well prepared coming here with the new bits, both aero and also weight reductions.

“I hope that we can make a bigger step than some other teams because we should be able to do that in theory from where we started. So that’s the goal and already tomorrow we’ll know where we are.”