Just over one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entry for 2026. Establishing the team from nothing has entailed a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and has a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now at over 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the project in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta