Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has entailed a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling various components of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this nimble approach will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
