Approximately a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the green light as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by focus are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that leader talks to a manager in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
