Approximately one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are sharper on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the race track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling various components of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
