Just over a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Building the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit 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 endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the project at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that manager talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
