Just over twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entry for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the America, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track 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 monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the project across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that manager talks to a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
