Approximately twelve months previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that passes focus are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Australia and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal 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 performing the right things on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the power unit, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, contrary to the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the project in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
