Approximately twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from the ground up has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now up to over 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of six hundred quickly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the mission in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
