A little more than a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the official approval as F1's latest entry for 2026. Constructing the organization from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO shared this view he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now at over 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader consults a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
