Approximately one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has required a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on various components of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
