Approximately a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as F1's newest participant for 2026. Establishing the squad from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development 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 sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Australia and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. 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 comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on different aspects of the mission in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that leader consults a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
