Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has entailed a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and gets a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the race track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the mission in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader talks to a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
