A little more than one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has required a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations 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 achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester echoed this 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. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the track. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 members quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to produce the power unit, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the project across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
