Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as F1's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending decisive point in Australia and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this team, 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 recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager communicates with a manager in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
