Just over one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and gets a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Australia and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO echoed this he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
