Just over a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and has a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the program across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
