Just over a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from the ground up has entailed a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with around 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 monumental challenge, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and has a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the chance to alter team culture.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the objective of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the program across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
