Just over a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has entailed a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal just before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling various components of the mission at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
