Approximately a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the official approval as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to alter team culture.”
With every day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Chester echoed this he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize 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 adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that manager consults a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
