Just over one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has required a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won'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 at over 400 and intended to hit the goal of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
