A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as F1's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and has a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the chance to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that manager talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
