Approximately one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from the ground up has entailed a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO shared this view he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on various components of the mission across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
