A little more than one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Building the organization from scratch has required a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to transform team culture.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in Australia and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back 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 felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the circuit. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging 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 implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the project at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
