Just over a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has entailed a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the race track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have 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 people, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the project at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a manager in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
