A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Australia and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while the CTO shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the race track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and intended to hit the objective of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, different from the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on various components of the project in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
