Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as F1's most recent participant for 2026. Establishing the team from nothing has involved a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes minds are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now at over 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the mission in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
