Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as F1's most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the team from the ground up has required a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and gets a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With every day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now reaching over 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the project at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
