A little more than a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to transform team culture.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to over 400 and intended to attain the goal of six hundred quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the mission across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
