For Fishers, the Formula 1 season opener in Australia was more than an international motorsports event. It was the first real test for Cadillac’s new F1 operation, which is building its headquarters here, and the team came away from Melbourne with one car at the finish and a realistic picture of the work ahead.

Cadillac’s debut was modest on the results sheet, but not without meaning. Sergio Perez qualified 18th and finished 16th in Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, giving the American team its first completed race. Teammate Valtteri Bottas started 19th but retired after a fuel-system problem.

At the front, George Russell won the season-opening race for Mercedes, leading home teammate Kimi Antonelli for a 1-2 finish, with Charles Leclerc third and Lewis Hamilton fourth for Ferrari.

For Cadillac, simply getting both cars qualified and to the starting grid was an achievement for a team that only recently secured its place in Formula 1 and is still building out its full operation across Fishers, Charlotte and Silverstone. Team principal Graeme Lowdon said afterward the weekend provided “a really good start to our journey,” while Bottas called it “a proud moment” despite his early exit.

The bigger story, however, was performance. Cadillac was eliminated in Q1 with both cars and never threatened the points on race day. Perez finished three laps down, a reminder that the new team is not yet ready to fight the established midfield, much less the front-runners.

Still, as first races go, this was not a disaster. New teams often struggle just to look organized in their debut, and Cadillac at least cleared the most basic benchmark: one car reached the checkered flag, the operation functioned, and the team gathered the kind of race data it could never simulate at the factory. AP reported Lowdon believes Cadillac earned the respect of rival teams in the paddock, even after a tough opening result.

From a Fishers perspective, that makes Australia less a breakthrough than a beginning. Cadillac did not arrive in Formula 1 ready to contend. It arrived to survive, learn and build. In Melbourne, it did enough to suggest the foundation is real.