Approximately one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the official approval as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Establishing the organization from the ground up has entailed a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be held in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and has a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, 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 this group, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor consults a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
