A little more than a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, 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 chance to alter team culture.”
With each day that elapses focus are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and goals are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with staff now reaching over 400 and intended to attain the objective of six hundred quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on various components of the mission in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
