Approximately one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as F1's latest entry for 2026. Constructing the team from nothing has required a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and has a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO shared this view he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the target of six hundred quickly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the project across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
