Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO echoed this he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and intended to hit the objective of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the center to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, different from the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling various components of the project across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
