Just over twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the official approval as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from the ground up has entailed a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the America, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to over 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
