A little more than one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to change team culture.”
With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now at over 400 and planned to reach the goal of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that leader consults a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
