A little more than a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as Formula One’s latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the race track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the mission in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that leader talks to a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
