Just over twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the impending critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling various components of the program in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
