Approximately a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as F1's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from the ground up has required a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be held in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
