Approximately a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has required a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to change team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new 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 recently and while the CTO shared this view he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the race track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to produce the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
