Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and intended to attain the target of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the center to produce the new engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the project in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that leader talks to a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
