A little more than one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Constructing the organization from scratch has required a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be held in the America, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track 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 sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Chester shared this view he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and intended to reach the objective of six hundred quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
