How the Cadillac Formula 1® Team designed a custom, Texas-themed livery for the United States Grand Prix
2026-10-20
This weekend, the Cadillac Formula 1® Team will show off its finest western wear. The United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, marks the debut of a one-off livery that celebrates America’s New Formula 1® team with a tribute to the style and traditions of the American West. GM News spoke with the designers and creatives who crafted this all-American motif in a top-secret project completed over a few short weeks ahead of race weekend.
It all began with a genuine Texan: Vincent Traina, design manager at the General Motors Performance, Motorsports and Accessories studio. Traina grew up in Dallas and hasn’t missed a single Formula 1® race since childhood, when his dad would wake him up in the early morning hours to watch races broadcast from Europe.
So when the Cadillac Formula 1® Team decided to do a custom one-off livery celebrating its American roots at the United States Grand Prix, it was a career-defining moment for Traina. “Injecting that creativity from the GM Design side, bringing in the culture of Texas as a Texan, and being such a fan of Formula 1®, it all hit home for me,” he told GM News.
The project began over the summer with a visit to GM Design in Detroit for the Cadillac Formula 1® Team creatives led by Cassidy Towriss. It proved to be a remarkably short turnaround time to develop a complete race car livery. Very quickly, the design team decided on a motif inspired by western wear, with nods to the chain stitching of blue jeans and vintage cowboy shirts, the scrollwork of fine saddlery, and hidden motifs that nod to the city of Austin and the iconography of the American West.
“It looks like the whole livery is embroidered right onto the car, which is really cool,” Traina told GM News.
A Formula 1® car’s shape is dictated by the rigors of competition. The car’s bodywork is refined down to the millimeter by engineers obsessing over downforce, aerodynamics, and the need for airflow to cool the engine and brakes as the car screams past 200 mph. Fitting the Austin livery onto such a precisely tailored canvas required Formula 1® expertise, so Traina’s team in Michigan collaborated with designers in the UK, where the Cadillac Formula 1® Team technical center is based. That’s where Jamie Thresher, senior design visualization CG artist, came in.
“Cadillac Formula 1® gave us some guardrails,” Thresher told GM News. “It all had to be driven by aerodynamics. We were given some areas of the car to work with, and it’s all about accentuating those areas.”
Thresher is not shy about acknowledging the challenges of creating a Formula 1® livery on such a tight turnaround. “Of all the themes we came up with, this was probably the hardest one we could have picked,” he said with a laugh. “Rendering each individual stitch and executing it well in a digital illustration is hard. When the first few deadlines came around, it was a little daunting. But once you start going on it, you just get excited.”
“This whole collaborative effort between Michigan and the UK has been so great,” Traina said. “We love getting that perspective. Formula 1® is so anchored in England, it was great to cross-pollinate ideas.”
With the Austin livery, the team wanted to celebrate Americana, Texas, and the American West, without falling into caricature or tropes. “It had to be serious, it had to look authentic,” Traina said. “We treated the Cadillac Formula 1® car like we would treat the interior of a Cadillac production vehicle – keeping the design elements very elevated, keeping the color palette nice and clean, but still bringing in the culture and being a little bit playful. We wanted it to feel a little lighthearted, but also like it belongs, and has a depth of detail that brings in the heritage and culture.”
Formula 1® fans will know that this is the third one-off livery the Cadillac Formula 1® Team has debuted this season, with custom designs having appeared at the Miami Grand Prix in May and the British Grand Prix in July. “This season, we’ve explored American identity through its symbols, its colors, and now its character,” said Cassidy Towriss, Chief Brand Advisor for the Cadillac Formula 1® Team. “In Miami, we drew on American symbols. At Silverstone, we celebrated American color. For Austin, we wanted to explore another part of that story through the character of the American West. There’s so much depth to American culture, and that gives us room to express who we are as a team in ways that feel authentic, thoughtful, and distinctive.”
“Creating the special Formula 1® livery for the U.S. Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas was an extraordinary opportunity to bring together the craft of Texas, the distinctive language of Texas style, and the precision of Cadillac design,” said Dominic Najafi, Executive Director of Global Cadillac. “The embroidery-inspired theme is rooted in Texas craftsmanship, while the overall execution was developed hand in hand with the Cadillac Formula1® Team. The resulting livery reflects both the exquisite artistry and the exacting precision that define Cadillac design.”
The tribute to Texas extends beyond the race cars, with custom driver suits for Cadillac Formula 1® Team drivers Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez that echo the western wear theme. A few thematic Easter eggs are hidden on the race cars themselves, including embroidered depictions of the Austin skyline and a map of the Circuit of The Americas. The livery includes 50 stars representing the United States of America, cactuses representing Texas, and a horseshoe with its heels facing up, a symbol of good luck.
The Austin livery was an out-of-the-ordinary project for Traina, Thresher, and Formula 1® as a whole. “We’ve never really seen anything like it,” Thresher told GM News. “It appeals to people, but it’s done in a tasteful way, and it stays true to Cadillac.”
When the Cadillac Formula 1® Team takes to the track in Austin this weekend, it will be a watershed moment for everyone who worked on this one-off, Texas-themed design. “I never once thought I would be designing an F1® livery,” Thresher told GM News. “I’m forever grateful for this opportunity.”
Traina agrees. “To be able to contribute like this to a Formula 1® effort, it’s just been a dream.”
This weekend, the Cadillac Formula 1® Team will show off its finest western wear. The United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, marks the debut of a one-off livery that celebrates America’s New Formula 1® team with a tribute to the style and traditions of the American West. GM News spoke with the designers and creatives who crafted this all-American motif in a top-secret project completed over a few short weeks ahead of race weekend.
It all began with a genuine Texan: Vincent Traina, design manager at the General Motors Performance, Motorsports and Accessories studio. Traina grew up in Dallas and hasn’t missed a single Formula 1® race since childhood, when his dad would wake him up in the early morning hours to watch races broadcast from Europe.
So when the Cadillac Formula 1® Team decided to do a custom one-off livery celebrating its American roots at the United States Grand Prix, it was a career-defining moment for Traina. “Injecting that creativity from the GM Design side, bringing in the culture of Texas as a Texan, and being such a fan of Formula 1®, it all hit home for me,” he told GM News.
The project began over the summer with a visit to GM Design in Detroit for the Cadillac Formula 1® Team creatives led by Cassidy Towriss. It proved to be a remarkably short turnaround time to develop a complete race car livery. Very quickly, the design team decided on a motif inspired by western wear, with nods to the chain stitching of blue jeans and vintage cowboy shirts, the scrollwork of fine saddlery, and hidden motifs that nod to the city of Austin and the iconography of the American West.
“It looks like the whole livery is embroidered right onto the car, which is really cool,” Traina told GM News.
A Formula 1® car’s shape is dictated by the rigors of competition. The car’s bodywork is refined down to the millimeter by engineers obsessing over downforce, aerodynamics, and the need for airflow to cool the engine and brakes as the car screams past 200 mph. Fitting the Austin livery onto such a precisely tailored canvas required Formula 1® expertise, so Traina’s team in Michigan collaborated with designers in the UK, where the Cadillac Formula 1® Team technical center is based. That’s where Jamie Thresher, senior design visualization CG artist, came in.
“Cadillac Formula 1® gave us some guardrails,” Thresher told GM News. “It all had to be driven by aerodynamics. We were given some areas of the car to work with, and it’s all about accentuating those areas.”
Thresher is not shy about acknowledging the challenges of creating a Formula 1® livery on such a tight turnaround. “Of all the themes we came up with, this was probably the hardest one we could have picked,” he said with a laugh. “Rendering each individual stitch and executing it well in a digital illustration is hard. When the first few deadlines came around, it was a little daunting. But once you start going on it, you just get excited.”
“This whole collaborative effort between Michigan and the UK has been so great,” Traina said. “We love getting that perspective. Formula 1® is so anchored in England, it was great to cross-pollinate ideas.”
With the Austin livery, the team wanted to celebrate Americana, Texas, and the American West, without falling into caricature or tropes. “It had to be serious, it had to look authentic,” Traina said. “We treated the Cadillac Formula 1® car like we would treat the interior of a Cadillac production vehicle – keeping the design elements very elevated, keeping the color palette nice and clean, but still bringing in the culture and being a little bit playful. We wanted it to feel a little lighthearted, but also like it belongs, and has a depth of detail that brings in the heritage and culture.”
Formula 1® fans will know that this is the third one-off livery the Cadillac Formula 1® Team has debuted this season, with custom designs having appeared at the Miami Grand Prix in May and the British Grand Prix in July. “This season, we’ve explored American identity through its symbols, its colors, and now its character,” said Cassidy Towriss, Chief Brand Advisor for the Cadillac Formula 1® Team. “In Miami, we drew on American symbols. At Silverstone, we celebrated American color. For Austin, we wanted to explore another part of that story through the character of the American West. There’s so much depth to American culture, and that gives us room to express who we are as a team in ways that feel authentic, thoughtful, and distinctive.”
“Creating the special Formula 1® livery for the U.S. Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas was an extraordinary opportunity to bring together the craft of Texas, the distinctive language of Texas style, and the precision of Cadillac design,” said Dominic Najafi, Executive Director of Global Cadillac. “The embroidery-inspired theme is rooted in Texas craftsmanship, while the overall execution was developed hand in hand with the Cadillac Formula1® Team. The resulting livery reflects both the exquisite artistry and the exacting precision that define Cadillac design.”
The tribute to Texas extends beyond the race cars, with custom driver suits for Cadillac Formula 1® Team drivers Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez that echo the western wear theme. A few thematic Easter eggs are hidden on the race cars themselves, including embroidered depictions of the Austin skyline and a map of the Circuit of The Americas. The livery includes 50 stars representing the United States of America, cactuses representing Texas, and a horseshoe with its heels facing up, a symbol of good luck.
The Austin livery was an out-of-the-ordinary project for Traina, Thresher, and Formula 1® as a whole. “We’ve never really seen anything like it,” Thresher told GM News. “It appeals to people, but it’s done in a tasteful way, and it stays true to Cadillac.”
When the Cadillac Formula 1® Team takes to the track in Austin this weekend, it will be a watershed moment for everyone who worked on this one-off, Texas-themed design. “I never once thought I would be designing an F1® livery,” Thresher told GM News. “I’m forever grateful for this opportunity.”
Traina agrees. “To be able to contribute like this to a Formula 1® effort, it’s just been a dream.”
