A little more than one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the official approval as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has entailed a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes focus are sharper on the impending decisive point in Australia and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the program at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
