Just over a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the go-ahead as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has involved a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the race track. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to reach the objective of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, contrary to the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the mission at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
