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Approximately twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as F1's latest entry for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has required a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.

The Tight Timeline to Australia

At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.

“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”

A Unique Opportunity

Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.

“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”

With each passing day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.

“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.

“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”

Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort

In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.

“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be 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 remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”

To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.

NASA Blueprint

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the project across a variety of locations.

“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager communicates with a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”

The Future

The success of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta