A little more than twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Building the team from nothing has involved a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now at more than 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, different from the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on various components of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
