A little more than twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has required a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared 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 championship to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a wry smile when considering the ride.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this setup, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the objective of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
