A little more than one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the power unit, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
