Just over one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as F1's newest entry for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the America, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and has a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to change team culture.”
With every day that passes focus are sharper on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
