A little more than a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from nothing has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses focus are more focused on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume 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 noted earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now at over 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on various components of the project at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this agile approach will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
