Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Building the team from scratch has required a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to over 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all working on various components of the program across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
