A little more than one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from scratch has involved a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and has a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon 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 deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to hit the objective of six hundred quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, different from the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the project across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
