Approximately twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the circuit. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching more than 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, different from the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the project at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that leader communicates with a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
