A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from the ground up has required a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes thoughts are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the race track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager consults a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Moving away from management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
