A little more than twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has entailed a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the US, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and gets a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You might get five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to over 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, at odds with the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling various components of the program at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that manager communicates with a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
