Approximately one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for 2026. Establishing the organization from the ground up has involved a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and has a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now at over 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 quickly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the mission across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for each action is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
