A little more than one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and has a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot 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 command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are sharper on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with employees now at over 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of finishing an HQ 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, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the project in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
