A little more than one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the green light as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has required a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “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 focus are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the race track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the program across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
