Cadillac Gives Mario Andretti The Ultimate Salute With Car Name
It's a fitting tip of the cap to one of the most iconic drivers in the history of motorsports.
I'm fired up for the start of the Formula 1 season and have been doing some research for my highly-anticipated, fan-favorite annual F1 preseason predictions article when I got to Cadillac and realized something.
Despite the fanfare around their debut Formula 1 car, I couldn't remember its name.
It turns out that that's because it didn't have a name, at least not until Friday, when the team announced that the iconic American brand's first Formula 1 car has been named after one of racing's most iconic drivers, Mario Andretti.
Each F1 team names its car in a similar, but different way. It's usually a combination of letters and numbers that correspond to the year or just a chronological number.
For instance, Red Bulls' new car is called the RB22, with the "RB" standing for — no points for getting this right — "Red Bull."
Aston Martin has the AMR26 (for "Aston Martin Racing") while Williams' cars always start with "FW" as an homage to team founder Sir Frank Williams.
Others use names that pay homage to a company's road cars, like Mercedes' "W" designation and Alpine's "A5" naming convention.
Ferrari uses "SF" for "Scuderia Ferrari" and tacks on whatever number makes them happy that season.
Seriously, they can be a bit all over the place.
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So, what was Cadillac going to do? Maybe something with "GM" for Cadillac's parent company, General Motors?
Maybe something with "TWG" for TWG Motorsports, which runs the team in partnership with GM?
Neither.
How about "MAC," which stands for "Mario Andretti Cadillac?"
That sounds pretty damn good, and it's what they're going with, meaning this year's car is officially the MAC-26.
Andretti is on the board of directors and is the most recent American to win an F1 championship, doing so with Lotus in 1978.
What a cool tribute. I hope this becomes the norm in the years to come.
With testing in the books, the next time we'll see the newly-christened MAC-26 — which will be driven by Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas — will be next week in Melbourne when it hits the Albert Park Circuit for practice ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.