Just over a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Australia and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now at over 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
