Approximately a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Constructing the team from nothing has involved a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when considering the journey.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now up to more than 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of six hundred quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
