Just over twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the official approval as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia 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 never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses focus are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the track. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to reach the goal of six hundred quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to build the power unit, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex structure, contrary to the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the project across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that manager talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Eliminating management approval for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
