A little more than one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the green light as Formula One’s latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has involved a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each day that passes focus are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at over 400 and planned to attain the target of six hundred quickly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Avoiding management approval for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
