A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has required a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses focus are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with employees now at more than 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 members quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the phase of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to produce the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the program in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that manager talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
