A little more than twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the official approval as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the program in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that manager consults a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
