Approximately twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has entailed a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes minds are sharper on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
