Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the official approval as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the race track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with employees now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the program in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader consults a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
