Just over twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as F1's newest entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the project across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader talks to a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding management approval for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta