A little more than twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has involved a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
