A little more than a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as F1's newest entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from nothing has entailed a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to change team culture.”
With every day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on various components of the project at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
