A little more than a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 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 rarely get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling various components of the program across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that leader talks to a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
