Just over a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from scratch has entailed a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the America, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You might get a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect 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 setup, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to hit the goal of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the program across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a leader at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
