Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from the ground up has involved a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the America, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural 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 task, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred quickly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the program in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that manager consults a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
