A little more than one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has involved a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be held in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“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,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to reach the objective of six hundred quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling various components of the mission across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
