A little more than twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the green light as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has entailed a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that passes minds are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the center to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on 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 supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
