A little more than twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With every day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the circuit. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal just before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a leader at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
