A little more than one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has involved a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now at more than 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the program in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that leader talks to a leader in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
