A little more than a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has required a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the US, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that passes focus are sharper on the impending critical moment in Australia and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the race track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to hit the target of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the center to produce the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on different aspects of the mission across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The success of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
