Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from nothing has required a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the program at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
