A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has required a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to transform team culture.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, 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 across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that leader consults a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this flexible strategy will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
