Just over twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now at more than 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling various components of the project in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
