A little more than one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest participant for 2026. Building the squad from scratch has required a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the America, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to change team culture.”
With every day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the mission in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
