Approximately a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the official approval as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has involved a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to change team culture.”
With each day that passes focus are more focused on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the circuit. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, 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 this group, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now at over 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
