Just over twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the go-ahead as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester achieved victories 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-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are sharper on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work 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 finish last. I am confident with this setup, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the project in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that manager communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this nimble approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
