A little more than one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the green light as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be held in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With every day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now up to over 400 and planned to reach the objective of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the program in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
