Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has entailed a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
