Just over one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the official approval as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be held in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with employees now at more than 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the project across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a leader in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
