Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from the ground up has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the midst of building an HQ 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, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the project across a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that leader communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
