A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has entailed a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses minds are sharper on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now at over 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on different aspects of the program at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
