Approximately a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as F1's newest entry for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be held in the America, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 members quickly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that manager talks to a leader in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
