Approximately one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix 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 possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while the CTO echoed this he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the race track. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to more than 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
