A little more than twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has entailed a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all working on different aspects of the mission across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
