Approximately one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has entailed a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be held in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that manager communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
