A little more than a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and gets a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating 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 won't have the chance to alter team culture.”
With every day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Australia and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with employees now at more than 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
