A little more than one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the looming critical moment in Australia and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the race track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the project at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor consults a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
