A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a wry smile when considering the experience.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to more than 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the mission across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that leader communicates with a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble methodology will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
