A little more than twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has required a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO shared this view he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the track. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now at more than 400 and planned to attain the goal of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal shortly before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
