A little more than twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's newest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from nothing has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne 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 challenge, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You can have a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now at over 400 and intended to reach the objective of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that supervisor consults a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
