Just over a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from nothing has involved a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the United States, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes thoughts are sharper on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching over 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the project in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
