A little more than twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from scratch has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be held in the America, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with employees now up to more than 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the project across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
