Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for 2026. Establishing the team from scratch has required a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the US, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and has a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With every day that passes minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the race track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now reaching over 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal just before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the program in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor consults a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
