Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the official approval as F1's latest participant for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has involved a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the America, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and has a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to over 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all working on distinct elements of the program across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this agile strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
