A little more than one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has required a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on various components of the program at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that supervisor consults a leader in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
