A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the organization from nothing has required a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the race track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to more than 400 and intended to attain the target of six hundred quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the mission across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff 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 agile approach will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
