Approximately one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the go-ahead as F1's newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has required a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia 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 sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective 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 the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the center to produce the new engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all working on distinct elements of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
