Approximately one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as F1's most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has entailed a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform team culture.”
With every day that passes minds are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the race track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now up to more than 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the mission 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 supervisor in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
