Just over twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the official approval as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut 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 monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching more than 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA'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 protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that leader consults a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this agile strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
