A little more than a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as F1's newest entry for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and intended to reach the goal of six hundred quickly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the program at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that leader communicates with a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for each action is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
