Just over twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the green light as F1's newest participant for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has required a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
