Just over a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project 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 chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now at over 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor consults a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
