Approximately one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the official approval as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in Australia and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that leader talks to a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for each action is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
