Just over a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes minds are more focused on the looming decisive point in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the race track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now up to more than 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the program at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a leader in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
