A little more than one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as F1's newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses minds are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face 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 finish last. In my view with this structure, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members quickly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the project in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
