Just over a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now at over 400 and intended to hit the target of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of building an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on distinct elements of the project across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
