Approximately twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the green light as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the chance to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling various components of the program at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that leader consults a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
