A little more than a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the official approval as Formula One’s most recent participant for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has required a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 members quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling various components of the program across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
