Cadillac explain staggering dilemma ahead of F1 debut

Cadillac boss Graeme Lowdon has detailed the staggering '238-to-1' dilemma the team faced when recruiting staff for the new project.

With the backing of its US automotive giant parent company, General Motors, Cadillac has entered grand prix racing for the first time, building its team from scratch, unlike fellow new team Audi, which has bought out Sauber. 

The team, with bases in Fishers, Indiana and at Silverstone, has therefore been required to hire all of its personnel, with team principal Lowdon explained how it received 143,265 applications for positions for a current headcount of just under 600 positions, a ratio of 238/1.

"We're just short of 600 on both sides of the Atlantic at the moment, and I think our estimate was that if we were going to Melbourne with less than 525 [people], then there would be a deficiency," Lowdon told media, including RacingNews365. 

"For the end of last year, to 31st December 2025, we'd advertised for 595 roles, and we had 143,265 applications, all of which had to be acknowledged, and we shortlisted 9,051 and interviewed around 6,500 and hired just north of 520.

"It is a massive task, and before you design a rear push rod or a top wishbone or whatever, it is significantly easier to just go and buy it. 

"We've got bold, sensible ambition, and so you have to do this stuff sooner or later, so we might as well do it from the start. [We're building' everything apart from the power unit, gearbox cassette, tyres, and the ECU.

"A lot of the growth [in team numbers] will be in the US, we're continuing the Indianapolis headquarters, and with operations at Silverstone, it is such a jigsaw of moving people around whilst we're building those facilities, because they're much more forward facing at the minute, and so that's been a massive operational task in itself."