A little more than twelve months previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has required a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Australia and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the circuit. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, different from the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
