Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from the ground up has involved a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on various components of the project in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
