Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that passes minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Australia and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the track. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with employees now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 rapidly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an main base 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 power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on various components of the project at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
