A little more than one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
