Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has required a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by focus are sharper on the impending decisive point in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching over 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the project at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a leader in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
