Approximately a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as Formula One’s latest participant for 2026. Constructing the team from the ground up has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the America, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With every day that goes by minds are sharper on the looming decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now up to more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the center to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
