Graeme Lowdon on Cadillac F1 debut: “Everyone’s aware the clock is ticking”

‘Failure is not an option’ is the tagline of 1985 film Apollo 13, as NASA flight director Gene Kranz, portrayed by Ed Harris, attempts to save three astronauts in peril aboard the Space Shuttle.

That mantra also permeates the nascent Cadillac Formula 1 team’s offices as the US-owned team enters a crucial phase of its grand prix trajectory.

Around its many worldwide outposts, including a European base in Silverstone, a facility in Charlotte and parent company Andretti Global’s brand-new headquarters in Indianapolis, countdown clocks are ticking down to the team’s major launch deadlines; the first fire-up of its maiden F1 car, the planned end-of-January shakedown in Barcelona, and the season opener in Australia.

For team principal Graeme Lowdon, it’s not a question of whether his team will be ready for its grand debut as F1’s first expansion team since 2016. “That’s not negotiable. We’ve got to,” Lowdon told Motorsport.com.

“One of the cool things about motor racing is the immovable deadlines. Nobody’s going to let us do the first grand prix a week later than everyone else. Everyone’s well aware the clock is ticking.

“We have a calendar that’s shared amongst everyone with a couple of key dates every month, whether it’s design releases or component testing. We’re on schedule at the minute.”

In order to meet those deadlines the team is continuously building up its European Silverstone base, with Lowdon revealing the squad is hiring personnel at a rate of “over one person a day”. One look at Cadillac’s LinkedIn page suggests plenty of positions are still up for grabs.

Cadillac’s key technical leadership has been in place for some time, with former Renault engineer Nick Chester installed as technical director, former Williams man Jon Tomlinson as head of aerodynamics and John McQuilliam, who worked with Lowdon at Manor, as chief designer. Cadillac can also lean on the experience of Pat Symonds as engineering consultant. Other key hires include former Haas race team manager Peter Crolla.

“We have a weekly meeting of all the staff and I remember the very first one, there were three of us there. Now there’s hundreds,” Lowdon said. “I think we are probably just over one person a day now joining; really good people as well, people I’ve been racing with before in the past. It’s a really big thrill for me to be able to go racing with some of these people again.”

Alongside its European hub in Silverstone, Cadillac will also be based at Andretti Global’s brand-new US headquarters in Indiana as well as a General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina. It will also continue using Toyota’s wind tunnel in Cologne.

“We’re building factories in the UK and huge new flagship headquarters in Indianapolis. I’m really excited for people to see what that’s going to be like, because I think it’s a game changer for Formula 1 fans in the US,” Lowdon said.

“It’s always a challenge to manage over multiple sites, but we see it as an opportunity. We’ve got a head office in Indianapolis. It’s the home of IndyCar. We’ve got the new power unit business down in Charlotte where we also have a lot of vehicle dynamics stuff and driver-in-the-loop simulators. That’s the home of NASCAR.

“Then we’ve got the operations at Silverstone, which is the home of Formula 1. In terms of motorsport energy, nobody’s in any doubt what the main focus is when you’re in any of those cities.”

Lowdon is no stranger to building an F1 team from scratch, but circumstances are very different from when he brought Manor into the series in 2010 for what was a bruising seven-year campaign under different guises until the outfit finally folded at the end of 2016. By that time, Lowdon and co-founder John Booth were no longer involved in the project.

“Well, we’ve got more time this time,” Lowdon said comparing the two start-ups. “I think we had seven months last time, and that was a challenge. I look back on it now and it’s just unbelievable.

“As history has shown, the goalposts move beyond all recognition. This time it’s significantly more stable, but also the game’s more complicated now. Certainly, the lesson I learned last time is the more things change, the more things stay the same. The fundamentals of building a team are just identical.”

Cadillac’s F1 effort switched gears once it finally received approval to join as an 11th team at last November’s Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend. It could finally approach personnel and partners with the knowledge it would be on the grid in 2026, rather than a promise and a dream.

“The overriding emotion was relief to some extent,” Lowdon said. “I’ve never once doubted that we would get the entry, otherwise there were enough things to put us off and walk away. The problem was just how long it was going to take.

“From a personal point of view, communicating that message to all the people who joined and seeing their reactions was a real joyful experience. I think we were over 300 people at that point, almost the size of Haas. Every single one had made a commitment to join a team that had no entry. We couldn’t even call ourselves a Formula 1 team. That’s something that I respect enormously.”

Cadillac will take Ferrari engines for the first two seasons before introducing its own hybrid power units, which is why GM’s Russ O’Blenes, who is in charge of the OEM’s F1 engine programme, attended the engine meeting in Bahrain.

Drivers to be picked on merit over nationality

One of the next crucial decisions for Cadillac is picking its drivers. Speaking to Motorsport.com earlier this year, the team’s advisor Mario Andretti said the intention was still to have an American driver in one of its cars, with Andretti confirming the team’s IndyCar ace Colton Herta is still a prime candidate pending an FIA superlicence.

Herta has since distanced himself from the constant F1 noise that has surrounded him since Andretti’s effort first broke ground, although he remains in the frame. Other free agents on the market include Mercedes reserve Valtteri Bottas and former Red Bull driver Sergio Perez, who both have over a decade of F1 experience that would be valuable to a new team.

Lowdon remained coy when asked if the team is still set on signing an American driver from the start, hinting that it may not necessarily happen from year one. “We’ll select drivers on merit. Having a driver on merit doesn’t mean you can’t have an American passport as well. We’ve got a lot to choose from,” he said.

“But also, you can’t just judge an F1 team on what they’re doing this year or next year. The team’s here to stay. I think the fans would love to see an American driver in an American team. There’s nothing stopping that from happening, but we’ve just got to go ahead and select on merit and build a team, because there are a few very experienced drivers available.

“We weren’t able to participate in the last round of driver negotiations, so we’re out of sync with a lot of other teams. But there’s some advantages to that as well. There’s a lot of very good drivers available at the minute.

“As and when we put the driver lineup together, whatever it is, it’ll be a strong one.”