Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from nothing has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the America, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault 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 no other project has been quite like the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Australia and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching more than 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on various components of the program in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that manager consults a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
