Approximately one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the impending critical moment in Australia and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the race track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the project across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that supervisor consults a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
