Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the green light as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has required a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and gets a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now up to over 400 and planned to hit the objective of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
