Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by focus are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO shared this view he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to produce the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the mission across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
