Approximately one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the green light as Formula One’s most recent participant for 2026. Establishing the team from scratch has required a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the project across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
