Approximately a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With each day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred quickly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal just before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the program at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
