Just over a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from nothing has involved a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be staged in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first 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 never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “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 our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the program in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
