A little more than twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has entailed a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes thoughts are sharper on the impending decisive point in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now up to over 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult 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, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the project at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
