A little more than one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track 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 aware there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and has a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect 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,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and planned to reach the goal of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Avoiding management approval for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
