Just over twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the organization from scratch has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and gets a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “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 remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that manager talks to a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
