Just over twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the organization from the ground up has required a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the chance to change team culture.”
With every day that elapses focus are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO shared this view he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now at over 400 and planned to hit the objective of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all working on various components of the program at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
