Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from nothing has required a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now at more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the process of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on various components of the mission at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that supervisor consults a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
