Just over a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as F1's newest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from nothing has required a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the new engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on various components of the project across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta