Approximately one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has involved a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the America, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“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 well-set team you won't have the chance to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the team 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 perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of building an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
