Just over a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as F1's most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from scratch has entailed a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each day that passes focus are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the center to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the program at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a manager in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
