A little more than one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from the ground up has required a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a amused expression when considering the journey.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with staff now at more than 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
