A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Establishing the team from nothing has entailed a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 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 rarely get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching over 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the project at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor consults a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
