Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as Formula One’s latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has entailed a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the America, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses focus are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely 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 with this setup, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the center to build the power unit, set for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the program at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
