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A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has involved a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.

The Countdown to Australia

At the last event of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.

“You can have five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”

An Unprecedented Opportunity

Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.

“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to change cultural approach.”

With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.

“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO shared this view he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.

“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression after that.”

Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort

In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of combative optimism.

“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”

To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching over 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the phase of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the center to build the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.

NASA Inspiration

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling various components of the program across a variety of locations.

“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”

Upcoming Challenges

The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta