A little more than a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the official approval as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and has a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now at over 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 members quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on different aspects of the program across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that leader talks to a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Eliminating management approval for everything is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
