Approximately one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and has a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the program at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
