Just over a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the race track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the project across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager consults a manager in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
