Approximately a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on distinct elements of the program in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that supervisor consults a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
