A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as F1's latest entry for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With every day that passes thoughts are sharper on the impending critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the race track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching more than 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organization, different from the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling various components of the mission across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that manager communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
