A little more than a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the official approval as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has required a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Australia and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to hit the goal of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated the team principal just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
