Just over a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of building an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on various components of the mission in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that manager communicates with a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
