A little more than one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest participant for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has required a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to more than 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the project across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
