Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Building the team from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by minds are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Australia and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now at more than 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on various components of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
