Approximately twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest participant for 2026. Building the team from nothing has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the track. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to more than 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of six hundred quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
