Just over one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the project across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Moving away from management approval for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta