Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from scratch has required a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed 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 enjoys a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO echoed this he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with employees now up to over 400 and planned to reach the objective of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the project across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a leader at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
