Approximately one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as F1's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the impending critical moment in Australia and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO shared this view he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible strategy will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
