A little more than a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit 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 sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a wry smile when considering the journey.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to reach the goal of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to produce the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the mission 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 manager talks to a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower team members to take charge. Eliminating management approval for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
