Approximately a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the America, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and has a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching over 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the project at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager consults a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
