Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entry for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has required a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the America, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Building an grand prix 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 well-set team you won't have the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that passes thoughts are sharper on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the circuit. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and planned to hit the objective of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of completing an headquarters 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, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, different from the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult 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, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on various components of the project at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this flexible strategy will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
