Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from nothing has required a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the program in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
