Just over a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the green light as the world of Formula One's newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the America, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
