Approximately twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from nothing has required a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the circuit. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
