Just over one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with employees now at over 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
