Approximately twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes focus are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the program in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader talks to a leader at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The success of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
