Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from nothing has required a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds 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, came aboard the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with employees now at over 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 swiftly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the project at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager consults a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
