A little more than a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the official approval as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Building the team from nothing has required a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the race track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now reaching more than 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on distinct elements of the mission at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
