A little more than a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has involved a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that passes minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with employees now reaching more than 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
