A little more than a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the America, 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 advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the chance to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in Australia and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the race track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the goal of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal just before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the program in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
