A little more than one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has required a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to attain the target of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all working on distinct elements of the project across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
