Just over one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as Formula One’s latest 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 program. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with employees now up to more than 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling various components of the mission at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
