Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne 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 conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when considering the ride.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With every day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all working on different aspects of the program in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Avoiding management approval for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
