A little more than twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the US, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation 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 ever since and has a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on various components of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
