Just over a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest participant for 2026. Building the organization from scratch has required a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the US, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching more than 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad 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 developing the center to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all working on different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
