Approximately twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has entailed a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by focus are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on various components of the project across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile strategy will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
