Just over a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the America, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With every day that goes by focus are sharper on the impending decisive point in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the program in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
