Just over twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the official approval as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and has a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to produce the power unit, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all working on distinct elements of the program in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor talks to a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
