Approximately a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Building the team from nothing has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with approximately 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 advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 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 opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses focus are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that leader consults a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
