Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the official approval as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, 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 chance to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the race track. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to more than 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 members quickly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling various components of the mission in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader communicates with a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
