Just over a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from nothing has entailed a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this setup, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
