Just over a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has required a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the America, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“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 established team you don’t get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now at over 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
