Approximately a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from the ground up has required a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each day that elapses focus are sharper on the impending decisive point in Australia and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, 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 this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of six hundred quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
