Approximately twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has required a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to change team culture.”
With every day that passes focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now at more than 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling various components of the program in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
