Approximately twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as F1's newest participant for 2026. Establishing the team from scratch has required a hectic operating tempo 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 Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix 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 established team you won't have the chance to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the program in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
