Approximately a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has entailed a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne 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 cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are sharper on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the circuit. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now at more than 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling various components of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
