A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne 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 challenge, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and has a wry smile when considering the ride.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, 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 opportunity to alter team culture.”
With every day that passes focus are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Inspiration
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the project at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
