Approximately a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now up to more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the project across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
