Approximately one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has required a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed 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 perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organization, contrary to the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the mission at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
