Just over twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from scratch has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now at in excess of 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the midst of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that manager communicates with a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
