A little more than a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as F1's newest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from the ground up has required a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 swiftly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the midst of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the center to build the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, 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 non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the project in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
