Just over a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from the ground up has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each day that elapses minds are more focused on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching over 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated the team principal just before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all working on various components of the project across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
