Just over twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as F1's newest entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the America, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now up to more than 400 and planned to reach the target of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that manager talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower team members to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
