Approximately a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as F1's newest participant for 2026. Building the team from nothing has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural 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 task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are more focused on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, different from the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
