A little more than a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has entailed a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the chance to alter team culture.”
With each day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now reaching more than 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the new engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that manager talks to a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
