Approximately one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With each passing day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on various components of the project across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor consults a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
