Approximately a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has required a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the America, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses focus are sharper on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the project across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
