A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from the ground up has required a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be 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 with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, 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 assortment of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the program across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
