Approximately one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has required a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the race track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, 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 feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the program across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
