A little more than twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the impending decisive point in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“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 feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at more than 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to build the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader consults a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding management approval for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
