A little more than a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has required a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by minds are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Australia and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and planned to reach the objective of six hundred quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the mission across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that leader consults a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
