A little more than a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the official approval as F1's newest participant for 2026. Building the squad from scratch has required a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and has a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching over 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the project across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
