Just over twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Establishing the organization from the ground up has required a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the project at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile strategy will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
