A little more than twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from the ground up has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now reaching over 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling various components of the project across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that leader communicates with a manager at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Moving away from management approval for each action is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
