Approximately a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume 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 feat in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and planned to hit the objective of six hundred quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said the team principal just before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on various components of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
