Approximately one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as F1's newest participant for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has entailed a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Australia and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the race track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to over 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 members quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the program in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
