A little more than a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to change team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are more focused on the impending critical moment in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the center to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the program across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this flexible strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
