Approximately a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from nothing has entailed a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the circuit. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to over 400 and planned to attain the target of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility 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. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the project at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
