A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from scratch has required a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now at over 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the project in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that leader communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
