Approximately a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has involved a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 members quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, different from the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging 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 conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Avoiding management approval for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
