Just over one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as the world of Formula One's newest participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time 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 cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the impending decisive point in Australia and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that manager consults a manager in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
