A little more than a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as F1's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has entailed a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new 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 this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to reach the goal of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to build the power unit, set for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
