Just over one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as F1's newest entry for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has required a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship 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 first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now at in excess of 400 and intended to reach the objective of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of building an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that leader talks to a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
