A little more than a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has required a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the America, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to over 400 and intended to hit the target of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
