A little more than a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has entailed a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the America, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
