Just over twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has entailed a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to transform team culture.”
With each day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the race track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to hit the objective of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the center to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on various components of the project in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
