Just over one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the circuit. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now at more than 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the mission across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
