Approximately one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has entailed a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over 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 made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“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,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO shared this view he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
