Approximately a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as F1's newest entry for 2026. Building the squad from scratch has required a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia 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 not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of building an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the project in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
