Just over twelve months previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for 2026. Establishing the squad from the ground up has entailed a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the program at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
