A little more than one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has involved a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne 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 not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the team had a point to prove 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 seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the race track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching more than 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 quickly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
