Just over one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the project across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
