Approximately a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the official approval as Formula One’s latest participant for 2026. Establishing the squad from nothing has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the America, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and has a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on different aspects of the program in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
