Approximately twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from the ground up has involved a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now up to more than 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the new engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling various components of the mission across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager consults a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
