A little more than a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has entailed a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and has a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses focus are more focused on the impending critical moment in Australia and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to build the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
