Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the official approval as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has involved a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and has a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with employees now up to more than 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the project across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader talks to a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
