Approximately one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from the ground up has required a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and has a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that passes minds are more focused on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now at over 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 members quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
