A little more than a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as F1's most recent participant for 2026. Building the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the race track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the mission in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that manager communicates with a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
