Just over twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the organization from nothing has entailed a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to change team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are sharper on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the target of six hundred quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on various components of the program in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
