Just over a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a amused expression when considering the ride.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With every day that passes thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the race track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to more than 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 swiftly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the team are in the process of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups 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 supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
