Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be staged in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the program at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
