Just over twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from the ground up has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be held in the US, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO shared this view he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now up to over 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex structure, different from the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the program at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager consults a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
