Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the green light as the world of Formula One's newest participant for 2026. Establishing the squad from nothing has required a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the United States, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the circuit. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Space Mission 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 understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on various components of the mission at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that supervisor consults a manager in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
