A little more than twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the official approval as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from the ground up has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the circuit. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, different from the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on different aspects of the program across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
