Approximately twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held 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 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by focus are sharper on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal just before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
