A little more than a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from scratch has involved a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and gets a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 rapidly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
