A little more than a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as F1's newest entry for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has involved a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Creating an F1 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 don’t get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
