Approximately a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from nothing has involved a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the race track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now at over 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on various components of the program in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader talks to a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
