Approximately a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural 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 sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the team are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on various components of the project across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
