A little more than a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With every day that passes focus are sharper on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now at more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that manager consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
