A little more than one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has required a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the America, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that passes focus are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now at over 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 members quickly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of completing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible approach will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta