Just over twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has entailed a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that leader consults a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
