Just over a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the green light as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has involved a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the America, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes minds are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“One must presume 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 recently and while Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, at odds with the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling various components of the program in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager communicates with a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
