Approximately one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entry for 2026. Constructing the organization from nothing has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible 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 at over 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to produce the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager talks to a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
