Just over a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the green light as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and intended to hit the goal of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
