A little more than one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the go-ahead as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has required a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now at over 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of completing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this agile strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
