A little more than one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now up to over 400 and intended to attain the target of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable 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.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that manager talks to a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
