A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the official approval as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has entailed a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager consults a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
