🔗 Share this article

A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has entailed a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will never be adequate time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.

“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”

An Unprecedented Opportunity

The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to change cultural approach.”

With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.

“One must presume that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the team had a point to prove as well.

“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression from there on.”

Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort

In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.

“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”

To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching over 400 and intended to reach the goal of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the center to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.

NASA Inspiration

“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project at a variety of locations.

“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that manager talks to a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower staff to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”

The Future

The success of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta