Approximately twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the chance to change team culture.”
With each passing day that passes focus are sharper on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester echoed this he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now at over 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
