Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO echoed this he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 members quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the mission at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this flexible strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
