A little more than one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the United States, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“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 accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the project in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
