Just over twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the official approval as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the center to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal just before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader communicates with a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
