Approximately a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from the ground up has required a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now up to over 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, different from the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal just before the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that manager talks to a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
