Approximately twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing 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 the sport converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, 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 sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You can have a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the impending decisive point in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a point to prove 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 operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to produce the power unit, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile approach will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
