Approximately twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as Formula One’s most recent entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the race track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with employees now reaching over 400 and intended to attain the goal of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the program at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible methodology will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
