Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has required a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be held in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team 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 gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and planned to attain the objective of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the power unit, set for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
