Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from nothing has required a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to transform team culture.”
With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the impending critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now at in excess of 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on various components of the project at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
