Just over twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as the world of Formula One's latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has involved a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now at more than 400 and scheduled to hit the target of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on various components of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that supervisor consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
