Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the organization from nothing has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be held in the US, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You can have a short period looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to change team culture.”
With every day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 swiftly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower team members to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
