Approximately twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the circuit. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 members quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that leader talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
