Just over a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as F1's most recent participant for 2026. Establishing the team from scratch has entailed a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the America, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now reaching over 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 members quickly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta