Just over a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has required a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each passing day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, 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 usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on various components of the project across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that manager talks to a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
