Approximately a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has required a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and gets a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect 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,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the circuit. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the program in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
