A little more than a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has entailed a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project 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, joined the nascent project in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, 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 control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With every day that passes focus are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment 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. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the race track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the program across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
