A little more than one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the official approval as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Establishing the organization from nothing has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when considering the experience.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with employees now reaching over 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the center to produce the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling various components of the program across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
