Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as F1's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from nothing has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
