Just over twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the official approval as F1's newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are sharper on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now at over 400 and planned to hit the goal of six hundred quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
