Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from nothing has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a wry smile when considering the journey.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the race track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to hit the goal of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the power unit, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the project at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
