STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The Formula 1 season begins this weekend. People will be glued to their screens. For the first time in a decade, a new name is joining the global motorsports series - Cadillac, which is framing itself as America's Team. Here's NPR's Adam Bearne.
ADAM BEARNE, BYLINE: Now, this isn't America's first ever F1 team. But you wouldn't know that from the way Cadillac unveiled their black and white car in a Super Bowl commercial.
(SOUNDBITE OF AD)
JOHN F KENNEDY: We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy but because they are hard.
BEARNE: If anything, channeling John F. Kennedy's speech about going to the moon might be an understatement of the challenge they face. The deal to bring Cadillac to F1 was finalized last March. The teams only had a year to build a car that tops 200 miles an hour and cost tens of millions of dollars to develop. It made its first appearance on track at a filming day in the U.K. in January.
(SOUNDBITE OF ENGINES REVVING)
DAN TOWRISS: This project is so complex. It's a big, big task.
BEARNE: That's Dan Towriss, the team's CEO. He's feeling good about the car ahead of the season opener in Australia.
TOWRISS: We had really good tests in Bahrain. I think the paddock was - it was basically respect for what Cadillac had done that we didn't look like a new team.
BEARNE: Still, that test showed they're expected to be one of the slowest teams this year. Towriss knows that winning might take a while.
TOWRISS: We certainly hope before the end of the decade.
MEGAN SCHUSTER: I think that's definitely achievable.
BEARNE: Megan Schuster is the host of the podcast "The Ringer F1 Show." She says having Cadillac on the track is a huge step forward for F1's popularity in America.
SCHUSTER: There has already been one, quote-unquote, "America's team," and that's Haas F1.
BEARNE: The team owned by American businessman Gene Haas.
SCHUSTER: But a lot of their actual production takes place in the U.K. and in Italy. Cadillac seems committed to actually being America's team. They're building a really large factory area just outside of Indianapolis.
BEARNE: That's where the team will eventually build their cars. For now, the Cadillacs are being made in Britain. The engines are being supplied by Italian giant Ferrari. But Schuster doesn't think that dilutes the team's American identity.
SCHUSTER: When you're trying to construct a team like this, you have to look at what's going to be best for you right now, and trying to recruit engineers to this outfit is probably hard enough without also maybe asking them to move from Europe to the U.S.
BEARNE: The team's biggest challenge for attracting fans to back them in this multibillion dollar sport - winning.
SCHUSTER: Americans love a winner. If Cadillac can get a win at some point in the next couple of years, if they bring over an American driver, I think there's a little bit of a grace period in there.
BEARNE: This season, the cars will be driven by Sergio Perez, a Mexican, better known as Checo, and Valtteri Bottas of Finland. Both are hugely experienced in F1. Dan Towriss says that had to come before national identity.
TOWRISS: Having an experienced driver who knows what to expect, who can give that feedback on the car, who has the patience to deal with first-time issues that teams have is really critical to the process.
BEARNE: The lack of an American driver isn't putting F1 fan Eric Rodriguez (ph) off Cadillac. He recently got into the sport after it began racing in his hometown, Las Vegas.
ERIC RODRIGUEZ: It's an American team that wave the flag. All the right moves they're making, such as bringing in Checo and Bottas, the people that you could get behind, that's the team I'm going to put my flag on.
BEARNE: Rodriguez will be tuning in to see if Cadillac's F1 journey turns out to be as glorious as humanity's first steps on the moon. Adam Bearne, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.