Approximately a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest participant for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has involved a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the United States, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With every day that passes thoughts are more focused on the impending critical moment in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the race track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the mission in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
