A little more than one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has required a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the America, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You can have a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, 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 chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that passes focus are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the race track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the project across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
