Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the green light as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has required a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be held in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have 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, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 members quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling various components of the project across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
