A little more than a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that passes minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organization, at odds with the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on distinct elements of the program at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
