Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has entailed a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the race track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 members quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to build the power unit, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
