A little more than a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the official approval as F1's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from scratch has required a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses minds are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while the CTO shared this view he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now at over 400 and planned to attain the goal of six hundred quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organization, at odds with the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling various components of the mission across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
