Approximately one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be held in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With every day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Australia and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the project across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Avoiding management approval for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
