Approximately a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are sharper on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while the CTO echoed this he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the circuit. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with employees now up to over 400 and planned to hit the objective of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the program across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that leader talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Eliminating management approval for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
