A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the green light as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Constructing the team from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and has a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO echoed this he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the project at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this agile approach will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
