Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has required a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and has a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, 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 change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Australia and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to more than 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the program in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
