Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has required a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the United States, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the goal of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable 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 procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that manager talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
