Approximately one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from scratch has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be staged in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With each passing day that passes minds are sharper on the looming critical moment in Australia and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now at in excess of 400 and planned to reach the objective of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on different aspects of the program across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that leader talks to a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
