Approximately a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with approximately 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 cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to change team culture.”
With each day that elapses focus are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume 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,” the team principal commented recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the objective of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of building an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the mission in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that manager consults a leader in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this flexible approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
