A little more than a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from nothing has required a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume 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,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with employees now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on different aspects of the program in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that leader consults a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
