Approximately one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Building the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume 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 commented recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the target of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the program at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that leader talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta