Approximately a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has entailed a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to change team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, different from the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the mission in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Moving away from management approval for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
