A little more than one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now at more than 400 and scheduled to attain the target of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on different aspects of the project at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this agile strategy will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
