A little more than twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from the ground up has entailed a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be held in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now at more than 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal just before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the program in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
