A little more than a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be held in the US, with around a hundred 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 advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the circuit. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated the team principal just before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the project in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a leader in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile methodology will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
