A little more than one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from the ground up has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the America, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to alter team culture.”
With each day that passes focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that leader talks to a leader in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
