Approximately twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as Formula One’s most recent entrant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has involved a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the mission across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
