Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has involved a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the US, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and planned to reach the objective of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the center to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the project in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible methodology will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
