Approximately twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are more focused on the looming decisive point in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the target of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader communicates with a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
