A little more than twelve months previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the official approval as Formula One’s newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has required a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a amused expression when considering the ride.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
