Approximately one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the possibility to change team culture.”
With each day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on various components of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
