A little more than one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the green light as F1's newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from nothing has required a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the circuit. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
