Just over a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the official approval as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has entailed a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, 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 constructing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
