Just over a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from scratch has required a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
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 first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an F1 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 change organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Australia and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the race track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with employees now at more than 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the program in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager consults a manager in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
