A little more than twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from the ground up has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes minds are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a point to prove 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 function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the target of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal shortly before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the program at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
