Approximately a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has required a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the impending decisive point in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO shared this view he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling various components of the mission in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that manager consults a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
