Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses focus are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to build the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal shortly before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
