Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Building the squad from scratch has required a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the United States, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are sharper on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO shared this view he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to build the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the project at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that manager consults a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
