A little more than a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and intended to reach the objective of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the team are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the mission in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
