Just over a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as F1's newest entry for 2026. Building the team from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the project at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
