Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has required a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now at more than 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
