Approximately one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and planned to reach the objective of six hundred quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the project in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that supervisor consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
