Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has required a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the race track. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the program at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
