Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are more focused on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front 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 have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the new engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the program in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
