Approximately a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has required a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 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 don’t get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling various components of the mission at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that leader consults a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
