A little more than a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has required a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be held in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the circuit. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now at more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a manager in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
