A little more than twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as Formula One’s latest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a wry smile when considering the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the project at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that manager communicates with a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
