Approximately one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has required a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all working on distinct elements of the mission across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
