Just over one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as Formula One’s newest entry for 2026. Establishing the squad from nothing has involved a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “We give authority to people to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
