Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for 2026. Building the team from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, 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 each day that elapses focus are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the race track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 members quickly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta