Approximately one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the green light as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and has a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 swiftly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the program in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that leader consults a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
