Approximately a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the America, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the circuit. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and planned to attain the target of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the midst of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to build the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling various components of the mission at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “So we empower team members to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
