Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be held in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the process of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all working on different aspects of the project in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that manager talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Eliminating management approval for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
