A little more than one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has required a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes focus are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the race track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 swiftly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand 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 adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
