A little more than twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as F1's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the United States, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with staff now at more than 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “We give authority to people to take charge. Eliminating management approval for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
