Approximately one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has required a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be staged in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and has a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With every day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the race track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling various components of the project at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a manager in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
