Just over a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the US, 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 never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
