Approximately a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the team are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the program across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that leader talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
