Just over a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from nothing has involved a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, different from the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that leader talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
