A little more than one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has involved a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when considering the ride.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, 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 opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes thoughts are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now up to over 400 and intended to reach the objective of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta