A little more than a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as F1's latest participant for 2026. Constructing the organization from the ground up has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when considering the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said the team principal ahead of the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on various components of the program at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to people 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 flexible methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
