Approximately one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has required a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the race track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal just before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager talks to a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
