Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Constructing the team from nothing has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and has a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes focus are more focused on the impending critical moment in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the race track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and scheduled to hit the target of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the mission across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that manager talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower staff 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 methodology will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
