A little more than a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has required a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to change team culture.”
With each day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with employees now reaching over 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on various components of the project in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader consults a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
