Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has involved a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to change team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now at more than 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on distinct elements of the mission in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
