Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has entailed a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Chester echoed this he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the race track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the target of six hundred quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the center to produce the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, different from the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the mission across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor consults a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
