A little more than a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Building the organization from scratch has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the America, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on various components of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
