A little more than a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and intended to reach the objective of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the program in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from management approval for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
