Just over a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has required a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With every day that passes focus are sharper on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the race track. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why 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 staff now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that manager consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
