Approximately a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the go-ahead as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has required a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and planned to reach the objective of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal just before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Avoiding management approval for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
