A little more than one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard 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 heart from that point and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the chance to alter team culture.”
With each day that passes minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to produce the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that leader consults a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
