Just over a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for 2026. Building the squad from scratch has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the task of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the circuit. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, different from the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling various components of the program at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
