Approximately one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the green light as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has required a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to produce the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
