Just over twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the green light as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has required a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the America, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the objective of six hundred quickly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the power unit, set for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all working on distinct elements of the program at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that leader talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
