Just over one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from the ground up has involved a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by minds are more focused on the impending critical moment in Australia and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching more than 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 swiftly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
