Approximately one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Building the team from nothing has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a wry smile when considering the journey.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Australia and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now at over 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the program at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this agile methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
