Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as F1's newest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the US, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now at more than 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, contrary to the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor consults a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this nimble approach will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
