Approximately twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Building the team from nothing has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut 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 never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the race track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
