Approximately twelve months previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the race track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all working on different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
