Just over a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the official approval as Formula One’s newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has required a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this setup, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize 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 embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the program at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that manager communicates with a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
