Just over twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from nothing has required a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the season to be staged in the America, with around 100 days 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 task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You can have a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the midst of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, different from the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all working on distinct elements of the program across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that manager talks to a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
