A little more than twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the green light as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first 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 never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a amused expression when considering the experience.
“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now at more than 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this nimble methodology will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
