Approximately one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing 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 monumental task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Chester echoed this he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the midst of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the mission in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager talks to a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
