Approximately one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season 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 never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team 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 knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the phase of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that leader communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
