Just over a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the green light as F1's newest entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has involved a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing 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 aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the race track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to over 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the mission at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta