Approximately twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entry for 2026. Building the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 swiftly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the program in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
