Just over twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now at more than 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of six hundred quickly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager talks to a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
