Approximately twelve months previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from scratch has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to change team culture.”
With each day that passes minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Australia and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the race track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to build the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging 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, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that manager consults a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
